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The Time to Listen is When Someone Needs to be Heard
I had seen one of your kind one time, walking, in the Folsom Historical District. It was a male with black hair, very handsome, and set apart from everything around him. He appeared to be searching for someone. I had felt a paralytic conflict, an attraction to him, and a fear of him also. You know my powers. They are not as developed as they ought to be. I wanted to know about him. I wanted to follow him. It was a long time ago. I never forgot about it—knowing he was not human, and that he was not a ghost. I do not think I told anyone about him. Any human being who has had a life that enabled him or her to acquire beneficial, accepting, enjoying, sharing attitudes toward self and relatedness, in the fullest extensions of those terms, can enter into relations and bring to and gain from the experience a reaffirmation at every level of that selfhood. Many modern human beings feel alienated and lost, or feel they are living only a partial existence until they find a satisfying love-relationship with at least one other human being. We can best understand ourselves when we can get outside ourselves and into life of another person. However, when a person awakens deeply enough to embody one’s full-blooded humanity without any dissociation from what is tender, soft, and vulnerable in one, one is one’s own hero. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10
Many people claim that people are nowhere near as noble, heroic, saintly, perfect, rational, pure, altruistic, or loving as they claim to be in the thousands of books, news reports, articles, art works, and speeches that people make about themselves. Humanists are supposed to extol human’s virtues, put human beings on a pedestal, see people as the be-all, end-all of existence, and to worship human beings. However, humanistic psychology is not interested in making gods of our men and women. It simply takes human beings as its basic unit of study and observes them, bases its findings on human-made rules and human-made goals, and puts human into their proper place in the nature of things. Humanistic psychology tries to correct the view that humans are worms, nothing, a zero with the ring knocked off. So in the attempt to see and describe human beings as they actually are, we have to pay attention to those who have been willing to tell it like it is, not like how we would like it to be. Victorian students were told that human beings were not the totally rational, reasoning, conscious, willing master of their fate (nor even much of their day-to-day behavior) that the Enlightenment thinkers portrayed. In addition to the individual’s mental abilities, the greatest number of people are dominated far more by emotions and underlying conflicts than they are by reason and will. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10
A great deal of emphasis should be placed on people really listening to each other, to what the other person has to say, because people very seldom (yes, there are other words to use beside rare) encounter a person who is capable of taking either you or oneself seriously. Of course, some people are not really like these; the foundation is there, but there is too much confusion and madness mixed in. Many people have a profound desire for communicating with and getting to know other people, but they are incapable of doing so. They do not know how. Getting to know someone, entering that new World, is an ultimate, irretrievable leap into the unknown. The prospect is terrifying. The stakes are high. The emotions are overwhelming. The two people are reluctant really to open up in front of each other, because in doing so they make themselves vulnerable and give enormous power over themselves to the other. How often they inflict pain and torment upon each other. Better to maintain shallow, superficial affairs; that way the scars are not too deep. No blood is hacked from the soul. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10
Emotions. Feelings. Experiences that are incredibly difficult to communicate in words. Yet something happens. A person experiences something, a feeling, a change, something going on inside of one’s head, stomach, muscles. The individual tries to tell about it. One selects words, pulls from one’s verbal quiver the straightest, truest, arrows one can find, hopes one’s aim and strength are adequate, and shoots the shaft out toward a target—another human being, who might be listening, reading, hearing. What happens? Sometimes the arrows fall short: not enough strength—will, desire, intent—behind the pulling of the bowstrings. Sometimes the string is flimsy or breaks—the motivation is lacking or feeble. Sometimes the arrows overshoot or miss the target—the bow man or woman is too forceful, tries too hard, or is careless. Or maybe he or she just did not want to hit it. Often when we miss in trying to communicate an idea, it is really because we are afraid of making contact, of actually being heard or understood. Although interruptions in human dialogue may be very painful, at least they are clear-cut. Individuals may suffer acutely when they lose a loved one, but they usually realize they are suffering, and they know why. The vital force missing in their lives is recognized and acknowledged. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10
In a communications-conscious society, where we have speech therapy, reading clinics, speed reading, sensitivity training, group encounter, etc., the person who cannot communicate is often considered odd, or is rejected. Yet not everyone wants to communicate, especially emotions. So we often find people going through the motions, saying “oops!” when a communication effort fails, but secretly meaning: “Thank God! I did not get through to him! Now, I do not have to give up anything myself. Deep feeling hurts too much.” There is, however, another dimension to human dialogue that is far more subtle and often quite difficult to recognize. For if dialogue can grow, it can also deteriorate, slowly and subtly, to the point where an individual can be trapped in a totally improvised relationship without even being able to recognize what happened or why. The process is very similar to the way the body grows and ages, on a day-to-day basis, without any visible change. The very fact a person can tolerate deteriorated dialogue and sometimes even encourage it is something that we would often prefer to deny, for reflecting on the implications is not pleasant. Since dialogue involves reciprocal sharing with other human beings, its deterioration must also be reciprocal, and each person must share part of the responsibility. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10
An individual can only receive to the extent that he or she gives, and, in that sense, dialogue is a mirror of his or her personality. Think how many times you have heard or even used the expression: “He is too emotional.” What did this mean? For many it probably meant that the person was exhibiting emotions or feeling-states that were excessive or exaggerated. Others would interpret that description to mean: “He is using expressions or gestures or something that embarrasses others.” Some people simply mean, “He is showing feelings that I have never seen before, much less experienced in myself.” However, others mean, “He is showing feelings that I have felt all too often. I am uncomfortable because I am being reminded of those feelings. I identify with this and it hurts!” Underlying most of these statements is an assumption a lot of people make: emotions are strange, frightening, weird, odd. However, what are the facts? The facts, if we can rely on the work of those who specialize in the study of emotion, are confusing. Out of the various theories they propose, we can find only a few things that they all agree upon. However, we can begin with the place at which many of them end: Human’s nature includes a full range of emotional responses. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10
Each of us is equipped wit the glands and hormones and brain centers to experience al the emotions that there are. “Put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth,” Colossians 3.8. This is an important point, for it does not leave emoting to a few people whom we call emotional, nor does it relegate emotions only to ladies. Each one of us, young or old, male or female, is capable of experiencing any human emotion. The truth is we probably all do experience far more emotion than we admit or even realize. Some of us have fantastic defenses set up, enabling us to hide some of our feelings from even ourselves. This idea is neither particularly new nor radical. Psychoanalysts spend years in personal analysis trying to understand their own personalities, because they recognize that if they are not aware of their own anxieties, then their own insecurities will block them from listening to their patients. In the dialogue of psychotherapy the patient can only communicate those thoughts and feelings that the therapist is willing to share, and this reciprocity can be burdensome, anxiety provoking, depressing, or exhilarating. The psychoanalyst tries not to indulge in the delusion that all the difficulties in psychotherapy arise from the fact that patient has problems. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10
If the patient flees from the therapy or terminates the therapeutic dialogue prematurely, psychotherapists reflexively begin to search for their own unconscious contributions to this disruption. A similar situation exists in all human relationships. Take, for example, the erosion and dissolution that occurs in so many marries. Problems seldom emerge unilaterally from the behavior of only one of the partners; usually both contribute to the deterioration. This is not a particularly easy idea to accept, especially for those who have gone through the trauma of divorce, for it is always easier psychologically to blame the other person for problems than to search for one’s own contributions. The word emotion seems to come from roots in Latin that mean “to move out.” Here we get the idea that emotion is expressing or making manifest some inner experiences, which is definitely one aspect of emotion. Another important thing about “to move out” is that it points to the motive force of emotions. When you are feeling a particular way, you are going to do certain things because of that feeling, in spite of that feeling, or to avoid or change that feeling: emotions are highly powerful as motivating factors. Why do people who have comfortable material existences and physically stable environments suddenly abandon it all? #RandolphHarris 8 of 10
It seems that what they sense is that they are being slowly strangled to death in their current environment, that their very existence is being threatened. Dialogue has deteriorated below a critical threshold, until one of the partners can no longer tolerate the isolation. One way of looking at emotions or affective states is to view them as changes from normal to balanced physiological state of the body. This definition is very respectable and if found in a number of expert opinions. However, it creates problems: who can decide what is normal or balanced so that we can figure out by how much or how far the behavior is different? Are the differences quantitative or qualitative? Yet we have to deal with the fact that each emotional state is experienced as a physiological change. Tensions are produced, directions sought, movements inhibited or energized. So we cannot completely avoid the physiological factors, especially in the light of the importance of a human’s biosocial nature. Still, no one wants another human being to be totally predictable, totally programmed, any more than we would buy a dog or a cat that was totally programmed. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10
The joy, beauty, and power of human relationships reside precisely in the fact that the process of being human is unique. And dialogue is the process that differentiates us from robots and programmed machines. So we can look at emotional experiences this way: the body is capable of experiencing any number of changes. Some of these changes come about because of things we perceived in the World about us. Some of them are based on memories, ideas, or other people. Whatever it is that is triggered by these experiences is felt, often strongly. Because some of these emotional states enable the person to survive, we can assume that emotions, in general, persist in human experience because they have some survival value, whether we understand them or not. However, once we get there, no mater where God may place us or what inner emptiness we experience, we can praise God that all is well. That is what is meant by faith being exercised in the realities of life. God will turn what might have been into a wonderful lesson of growth for the future. Fill your mind with the thought that God is there. God is my Father, he loves me, and I will never think of anything that he will forget, so why should I worry? “And never could be a people more blessed than were they, and more prospered by the hand of the Lord,” reports Ether 10.28. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10
I Held a Jewel in that I Did Always Love and Went to Sleep–That Love is Life and Life hath Immortality
Stop abusing your power. Stop forgetting that you have it. Stop forgetting the inevitable limitations of your kindred here! Remember, this is an exposition of souls, a bartering of extraordinary revelations. Evolution best accounts for the presence and variability of living forms on Earth. Mutations (deviations from the main form) occur by chance or because environmental factors. If the mutations favor the organism by enabling the organism to adapt to its environment better or to survive its environment, then the mutant organism is selected-for by nature and will survive. Other organisms without the mutation die off. Surviving mutations will mate and produce variations, and so on. The implications of this are important. It means that even though evolution is still going on (so slowly that we cannot observe it in ourselves), it is safe to say that characteristics that humans possess have just as much survival value as characteristics possessed by other life forms. For example, if sneezing is selected-for by the evolutionary process, as is suggested by its universality among all people and other animals, it means that it performs some function that is essential to the life of the organic survival of all people and other animals. So it is with all other behaviors: blinking, shivering, sensing danger, feeling pain, sexual excitement, having five fingers, having an opposable thumb (it can touch the finger tips of the other four fingers), having abundant hair on only certain parts of the body, etc. #RandolphHarris 1 of 14
All living organisms retain structural and functional evidences of their distant evolutionary past. Whatever the conditions under which they are born and developed, their responses to stimuli are always affected by the experiences of the past which are incorporated in their genetic make-up. The evolutionary steps though which humans reached the level of Homo sapiens explain, for example, why the structure of their backbone can be traced to the early fishes, or why the salinity of human blood still reflect the composition of sea water from which terrestrial life originally emerged. The first thing that interests us in understanding the essential self is what makes us go. What it is that makes people tick has been the subject of countless books, but it all properly fits in the bio-psychological study of motivation, which begins with the physiological needs of our bodies. Not that the tissue needs are the most important always, but they are fundamental to those we acquire later. They are prepotent. Later in life, learned or acquired motives are very important, but if the basic physiological needs are not met and the tension to satisfy these needs builds up, they assume urgencies that override the acquired motives. Probably the most obvious example is the physiological need for oxygen. A person strangling for lack of air is very little concerned with needs for prestige, affection, money, or even food. At the moment, air is one’s greatest needs, so breathing assumes a prepotency over all other needs. #RandolphHarris 2 of 14
The physiological needs are often called survival needs because they are vital for continuing physical existence. The primary motives or needs are for: Nutriment, liquid, oxygen, rest and sleep, elimination of body wastes, regulation of temperature extremes, and avoidance of pain. The next level of motivating factors includes those that are learned or acquired. Through learning, previously neutral stimuli seem to acquire the capacity to arouse motive states. Since these motives are probably not physiological in a direct sense, they are usually not included in any listening of needs related to survival. They are called secondary motives. Sometimes, because these needs involved other people to a greater degree than the primary needs do, they are also called social motives. Examples of secondary motives are the needs for affiliation, social approval, status, security, and achievement. We are probably much more driven by these motives than by primary needs, and they are far more complex. However, we are unable to find any way of separating the acquired motives from their grounding in the physiological make-up of the human being. At various periods of our lives we are primarily or predominantly motivated by different kinds of drives or forces. #RandolphHarris 3 of 14
When we are kept at a level of satisfaction and need-reduction, it is more likely that one will become bored, fatigued, and resentful. Therefore, it is part of the biological nature of the person to seek continuing growth. There is a point in human development when the predominate motive for the human being is to discover, seek out, and test the relationships of affection and belonging. In other words, love comes to be a motive. Love is a pattern of response that takes time and effort. It is not inborn. When we are young, we can respond to love, and we need all that goes with it. However, the newborn infant is hardly capable of loving or giving it in the sense that we mean when we talk about mature love. At another stage in our development, the predominant motives of the individual are to find out about love. It is partly an intellectual search, since one is usually undergoing cognitive development. However, it is also an intense emotional experience, since it deals with an important part of one’s human life. An individual’s security now comes from finding out about the quality of one’s belonging, the depth of one’s affection and that of one’s significance to others. If we are wise, receive the truth, and take the Holy Spirit for our guide, we must learn to optimize the influence of higher processes in our actions. Otherwise, we lose our power of independent action. #RandolphHarris 4 of 14
At each stage there seems to be a necessity for choice. In the choice between staying at the level of safety and going onto the level of loving, the easiest choice is for safety, because it has already been experienced and is known. Loving and belonging involve a lot of risk. They are involved in putting oneself on the line, out on the limb of initiative. And that is scary! To take the chance of trying to love takes courage and willingness to risk. The risk comes from the possibility of failure and rejection. Nobody seems to enjoy rejection. In another stage of live comes the predominant need for identity. Once we have learned to love and be loved, we are strongly impelled to discover who or what this loved and loving person actually is. A person wants to know is he or she loved because of who they are as an individual, or just because they do what they are told. One wants to know is one loved for being oneself or a reflection? As one evolves, a person now wants others to acknowledge their unique contributions. All of this can cause pain and embarrassment, but the rewards of selfhood more than make up for the pain and disadvantages. One of the major reasons why people cannot move up to a higher level of motivation is the lack of encouragement from the environment to do so. #RandolphHarris 5 of 14
In general, public education in the American society is geared toward conformity of behavior, not individuation, and pupils learn to prefer safety and security to risk-taking. There is, of course, much formal teaching about success, courage, and pride in accomplishment, but consistent urgings toward behaving or not rocking the boat indirectly encourage people to fit in and become a part of something else. Furthermore, the major educational emphasis—direct or authoritarian teaching, rote memorization—often work against the self-actualization of both student and teacher. Although many people believe that television serves as a method of control, which is true, it also serves to regulate behavior and remind people of what is normal and rational behavior. The new show on the CW network, called All American is a great show because it has a diverse cast and a normal storyline for how the average Americans experience life. It also reminds people that generally our communities and families are cohesive and harmonious, and although we do have some problems, it is not conflict habitual. Also, when people do not have family support, generally members of the community band together to form a family and look out for each other. The program reminds that every community does have problems, which are in normal tolerance ranges of behavior, but which can be resolved through communication. #RandolphHarris 6 of 14
When we reach middle adulthood, our motives for behavior are more cognitive, they based on seeking insight, information, knowledge, wisdom, and rational experiences. We spend a great deal of our childhood cultivating our intellectual and rational powers, and once we have worked through our self-actualizing needs and gotten them in order, we begin to explore the areas that require thought and insight. Many people in this period of life are involved in work that has become routine or patterned. So, they are no longer just creating a job or a vocation; now they can work on tuning it, perfecting it, making it into some sort of smooth-working operation. This is not to say that it becomes mechanical; that is the opposite of self-actualization in work. Rather, it means tat the job, whatever it is, is now established and the worker can perfect his or her own intellectual skills in regard to that job. In one’s marriage, a person attempts to make rational choices and decisions about one’s future and that of one’s family. “Behold, my soul delighteth in the things of the Lord; and my heart pondereth continually upon the things which I have seen and hear,” reports 2 Nephi 4.16. One is into the stage of planning and working out any issues of one’s whole life style For many it is a very fascinating period of life. For others, who are fixated at a lower level of motivation, it is a very frustrating period. #RandolphHarris 7 of 14
Our degree of control varies between 0 and 100 percent. Some people have much more control than others. Within the same person, the degree of control also varies in different situations. However, loss of control has become a pervasive problem of the modern World. It may be observed in violence, drug addiction, alcoholism, sexual excesses and deviations, indolence, crime, neuroses, insanity, and myriads of other manifestations, most of which have been clearly described or condemned and foretold in the scriptures. “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For people shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly people laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of truth,” reports 2 Timothy 3.1-7. Each of these excesses has is more moderate forms, and they are common among us—surprising as this many seem. #RandolphHarris 8 of 14
Inhabitants of Victorian culture were dominated by the problem of overcontrol, whereas much of modern culture is plagued by under control, as we see every day in the deliberate manufacturing or falsehood by news media, schools, and streets. Under control may follow from cultural norms such as are found in some tribal customs and in the codes of slum street gangs. It may also arise from biological defects such as brain damage or hormonal disorders; it may emerge from a particularly traumatic childhood; or it may derive from the consistently bad choices made by otherwise normal individuals. The degree of personal responsibility for actions thus varies in terms of internal and external conditions impinging upon the person. The most obvious cases of loss of control are found among psychologically disturbed persons. Indeed, one of the hallmarks of psychopathology is that the person reports being out of control. The behavior is usually propelled by strong inner drives such as the need for affection, a feeling of dependency, or biological tension. This is an instance of powerful internal stimulation overwhelming the person’s conscious control and dominating one’s behavior. People are able to create their own reality, and psychotherapy is a way to clear that up so that a person can stand and still exist and distinguish between what is real and what is pseudo reality. #RandolphHarris 9 of 14
In mature adults, the motives center on a need for order, symmetry, consistency, and cohesion. Many people meet this need through religion, others by pleasant memories of the past life. Some re-discover lost creative interests, especially when they are released from the day-to-day existence of occupations. In this period, people can see their lives as a complete pattern. Integrity comes from the root word from which we get “integer,” a whole number, and “integration,” completeness. It means congruence, a total combining of all aspects of the self into one united and fully accepted whole. Brain research has located at least five pleasure centers in the hypothalamus of the more primitive parts of the forebrain. Here, as far as contemporary neurological research knows, the beginnings of the perception of pleasure takes place. Apparently, then, any and all experiences of pleasure are communicated to our consciousness by the pleasure centers. This would include the good taste of a hot pizza when hungry, the delightful fragrance of a good perfume (or, by combinations of perceptual matters, the fragrance of even less expensive perfume on the right woman!), the comfortable feeling of stretching out in the soft folds of a reclining lounge chair, the soothing pleasures of basking in the Sun at the beach, the exhilarating pleasure of riding a roller coaster, or buying a brand new house or car. #RandolphHarris 10 of 14
There are vastly different properties of the stimulus, and they are perceived as pleasurable and apparently are mediated by these same centers in the hypothalamus. If the experience of love is a pleasurable one, it too is a matter of hypothalamic responsiveness, although it is unlikely that in the popular mind the hypothalamus will every replace the “heart” as the supposed seat of love. We do not expect any hot-blooded young Hans (Jet Li) to declare to their Trish O’Day (Aaliyah) (Film, Romeo Must Die, 2000), “I love you with all hypothalamus!” “My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep. He hath filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh. He hath confounded mine enemies, unto the causing of them to quake before me,” reports 2 Nephi 4-20.22. Each person defines beauty, love, pleasure, pain and all the other experiences in a way that is singularly unique to the individual. An individual shares general interpretations and definitions with each person of one’s culture, but one narrows these down for specific situations. Even in one culture two people may choose entirely different-looking individuals to illustrate their personal definitions of beautiful or sexy. #RandolphHarris 11 of 14
Somehow, our personal and separate definitions of beautiful or sexy permit each of us to respond to properties of those two people and communicate these interpretations, with emotional components, to the various areas of the nervous system. The two different messages get to the hypothalamic pleasure centers and the two observers both experience the almost identical response we find described by the currently popular term “turned on.” However, Victorian reactions are still around, even in this enlightened day and age. Therefore, some people may not be as liberated and could still like to repress certain urges and desires, and forego pleasures of the flesh. Doing so could be spiritual and gratifying. Furthermore, did you know that if a person feels ashamed or guilty about physical pleasure, is scolded for eating too loudly, for example, with the result that he or she feels eating and enjoyment of food is bad, one can develop into a person who is ashamed of physical body functions and needs and has a difficult time experiencing any pleasures that might even be remotely connected with physical gratification. As an illustration, one woman of our acquaintance feels uncomfortable sitting before a nice, warming fire, enjoying friends, conversation, a drink, or the comfortable cushions! #RandolphHarris 12 of 14
That lady’s complex discomfort is directly related to being told too often in childhood that comfort and pleasure were luxuries: that life is hard, and hard work was what each person needed to do; that comfort and pleasure takes one away from the responsibility of life; that life is a cross we have to bear. Also, when people are told that to be a full adult, they have to have intercourse, they may not understand that that act is a sacred responsibility that should only be entrusted to someone you love. And if they engage in sexual activities because of peer pressure, the sexual experience may not be satisfying for either person involved. While a male may get the satisfaction of the orgasm: there may be little responsiveness from the poor, scared girl. She may not neither orgasm nor confirmation. She may have pain because the sexyal organ of the male might be frightening. She may have disgust because the seminal discharge is messy. And she may have fear because the male’s climax is loud and boisterous, and the emerging excitement and pleasure she felt were foreign and forbidden by her repressive background. She might even have disappointment because the aftermath did not leave her with the high, spiritual transcendence she has been led to expect. She may have shame because she had not remained chaste as her parents and religion had taught her. #RandolphHarris 13 of 14
In addition, a personal not ready for sex, male or female, may have personal guilt because he or she had done something opposed to one’s own standards of conduct. They might experience anger because, instead of feeling more like an adult, he or she may feel less, feel like he or she has lost something of oneself. Add to this the anxiety and concern one feels as one worries that the act might lead to pregnancy, and a pretty tragic picture is added to the archives of sexual misunderstanding. Prior to the last half century, the relational demands of men were not that great; all they had to do—and I am not minimizing this—was bring home the bacon (pay check), keep a roof overhead, perhaps make a bit of manly conversation, not beat their wives, and keep the kids in line. However, having a healthy, fully functioning relationship is not a luxury nor something just for the few rare. It needs to become a reality for enough of us to significantly impact the majority. Do you want to see what you do not see about yourself? Do you want to discover and face what you have been keeping in the shadows? Do you want to wake up to who and what your truly are, without bypassing your raw humanity? To not remain mired in such relationship automaticity is a huge step in developing the capacity for real intimacy. #RandolphHarris 14 of 14
The Most important things in the World are family and love.
Who Has Not Found Heaven—God’s Residence is Next to Mine and His Furniture is Love
Meghan sat alone at the table, with a bacon, lettuce, and caviar sandwich, in her elegant Cresleigh Domain house, with her charming image perfectly reflected in the gloss. She wore a navy-blue dress, and with her piquant naked face and tiny shoulders she was so perfectly a female creature. Bit of white nightgown revealed. Beautiful hair, but second fiddle to her gorgeous brown eyes and virginal mouth. She stared at me as if she did not know me. The pressure of knowledge behind her eyes was so immense, she might have been mesmerized. We are beings. We are emotional and rational beings. We are capable of understanding many of the things that happen to us, and unable to comprehend many others though we can still experience them. The lacks of comprehension are due partly to our attitudes or mind-sets, which limit our understanding to things that our word symbols can define or point toward. Partly the limitations are due to lack of development of our fullest functioning as immortal beings. As self-aware beings, able to look objectively at our own experiences, we find ourselves confused and anxious at times, overjoyed and ecstatic at others. We can search for many things: happiness, wisdom, perfection, enlightenment, identity, meaning. We can be effective in dealing wholly with the life we live, and we can attain some measure of significance. #RandolphHarris 1 of 11
A person who has the vision of God is not devoted to a cause or to any particular issue—one is devoted to the Almighty God. “And what is it that ye shall hope for? Hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this is because of your faith in him according to the promise,” reports Moroni 7.41. We cannot and we must not allow ourselves to get distracted from our sacred duty. We cannot and we must not lose focus on the things that matter most. In the search for significance each of us will have to begin with who and what we are. Each must discover the fullest meaning of one’s individual and social identity. Each must admit into one’s consciousness as much of what one is experiencing as one possibly can. It is only with this full, open, honest acknowledgment of all that we are, that we can demonstrate first to ourselves, then to others, that we truly are significant, that we matter. We as faithful Latter-day Saints have the Holy Ghost as a constant companion to teach us the things of eternal value. Pause for a moment and check where your own hear and thoughts are. Are you focused on the things that matter the most? How you spend your quiet time may provide a valuable clue. When the pressure of deadlines come upon you, where do your thoughts go? #RandolphHarris 2 of 11
Are your thoughts and heart focused on those short-lived fleeting things that matter only in the moment or on things that matter most? What grudges do you bear? What excused do you cling to that keep you from being the kind of father, son, daughter, or wife you know you should be? What are the things that distract you from your duties or hinder you from magnifying your calling more diligently? Sometimes the things that distract us are not bad in and of themselves; often they even make us feel good. However, each of us seems to need, especially today, to know that our being here makes a difference. Each of us seems to need to know that our life has made at least a ripple on the pond of human existence. The search for significance is not a search for fame or notoriety or reputation or honor or a place in history. Significance is the realization that we are part of all that is going on, that life includes us, and that without us there would be a you-shaped hole in human experience. When we truly love our Heavenly Father, and the Lord’s soul, we demonstrate that love through our actions. It means living life because we are alive, and knowing that a part of life would not be lived if you did not live it. #RandolphHarris 3 of 11
The search for significance also means being able to feel that right now, while still alive, you are a stimulus: that at least one other human being will respond in some fashion because of who or what you are, and even if you are lonely, scared, and alone, God is your true friend and knows you he knows you heart and cares about you and wants you to live and be happy and safe and well. I grew up going to the Elmhurst Seventh-day Adventist Church, at 9658 Thermal Street in Oakland, California 94605 and this is where I originally learned about the love of God. God is love, power, and splendor—and God is a mystery. His ways are far beyond us, but he still reaches out to us. God is infinite yet intimate, three yet one, all-knowing yet all-forgiving. We will spend eternity cherishing an ever-deepening relationship with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is here to comfort us, guide us, and transform us to live as witnesses for God’s love. The same Spirit who inspired prophets and empowered Jesus, who shaped scriptures and created the World, enables and empowers each one of us. The Spirit activates the body of Christ, the church, through spiritual gifts and a humble attitude of service and compassion. The search is often a struggle, for life is certainly not a bed of roses. #RandolphHarris 4 of 11
However, the Bible is ancient and timeless, a masterpiece of literature, and will show us our place in God’s plan and truth, and guide and shield us from deception. What God wants us to do is walk by faith. We must never consider our moments of inspiration as the standard way of life—our work is our standard. Our clients in psychotherapy tell us time after time that being alive is sometimes so hard that they think very seriously of giving up the fight. Some of them mean ending their lives, and a few try to. Other mean settling back into despair, defeatism, depression, infirmary. Other indicate that they often give up by settling for half a life. They live minimally, only staying around the edge of a full and fulfilled life. They take jobs that are unsatisfying or dead-ended, not because they have not the potential or even actual ability to have better, more challenging jobs, but because they cannot venture into the center and take the risk of being full and real. They cannot take the leap of faith that full living requires. They cannot jump from where they are—safe but unsatisfied, comfortable but unrewarded, easy but unfulfilled—to where they could be, because it is too dangerous. #RandolphHarris 5 of 11
To be alive is to face risks. Some of these are physical risks: death, injury, disfigurement. Others are emotional risks: embarrassment, anxiety, rejection, guilt, shame, betrayal. And to be alive fully is to make yourself vulnerable as you open yourself up to all that can happen. Some of the experiences may be painful and offensive and even deadly dangerous. However, some of them, too, are wonderful, fulfilling, warming, exhilarating. So, just being alive is a struggle and fully of ordinary everyday risks. However, to seek the difficult, to search for the challenging, to demonstrate human effectiveness, in short, to be significant, is the biggest struggle of all. We must continually pray to forgive us our possessing as we forgive those who have tried to possess us. Are we humble enough to know that our lives are never big enough to bear the full weight of others’ lives? Can we allow others to fail without having it undermine our own life? Can we allow others to find their own satisfaction without having to draw upon that for our own satisfaction? If our need to help others is a disguised expression of our own uncertainties, then we exploit others by making them into extension of ourselves. We use them to support our needs. #RandolphHarris 6 of 11
Thus, we have to ask whether we can genuinely free others from our own emotions and prejudices. Can we allow others the freedom to be who they are and to become what they intend? Our ways may never be the way. Our reality is always so much less than the larger reality of which we are only part of. A major trap in our desire to help is that of helping too much. One of the conditions under which help can be given must be that the helper does not too passionately wish to give it. This does not mean that one is indifferent or does not care. It means that one cares so much that the help given is real help that one will not insist on it being given when it is inappropriate. We must give up moving into another’s life-space. “But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the World of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment,” reports John 16.7-8. Present reality is crucified for the sake of an unknown future reality. Reproduction in spirit depends upon an interruption in continuity. I am giving up my need to be needed. I am to let go of my desire for others to be like me. I am to decrease that others may increase. My movement is to be apart from the movement of others. I am to be a servant even as I do not allow myself to be mastered. #RandolphHarris 7 of 11
Growth never comes at the same rate or in the same way for every person. So our paths intersect and our paths move against each other and our paths move apart. We can be grateful when physical closeness changes into personal presence. We know what it is to be together. We then can become those selves which we truly are. The deepest demand upon the helper is this: I must give up my power and my relationship—my will and my love—what others might live their lives more fully. Am I able to help? To respond is to be real. To be real is to ready all of oneself for what life calls forth. What matters most, in the end, is maintain an active, thoughtful stance toward what is happening in life. We are to be receptive actively, taking in the truth of situations. We are to be active receptively, shaping the meaning of situations. We are to live and respond in the faith which is floating in water 70,000 fathoms deep. However, we do not know what other people are experiencing. Others withhold information necessary to the development of a mutually satisfying relationship. The nature of human beings is a philosophical subject, but it is of utmost importance to us in trying to understand how self-actualized for personal significance comes about. The study takes us to the matter of organic evolution as being. #RandolphHarris 8 of 11
Human’s nature begins with the understanding of our physical nature. Our approach is naturalistic, but we know that many aspects of human’s nature lead us to deal with those experiences that are puzzling if dealt with only in naturalistic terms. Among these are human’s values. Some of the most important values of us throughout history is the search for pleasures, the search for perfection, the search for wisdom, for meaning, and for significance. The characteristics of humanistic psychology are directly related to our view of human nature. People’s own best interests, viewed in the light of a full understanding of our nature, are the criteria for the study and application of human psychology. Are you, however indirectly, looking for an adventure that will make you fully alive, that will shake and take you to your core, and give you back more than you can imagine? If so, choose to move in the direction of truly intimate relationship. Charles Darwin was thought to have an uneventful life and be an unassuming man in an unspectacular setting, but he probably produced a greater impact on out World than that of the more flamboyant figures—the Caesars, the Napoleons, the Obama’s and the Clinton’s. #RandolphHarris 9 of 11
We are special creations of God with an exclusive soul. We do not have to find the right person in the very near future, but launch ourselves—at the optimal pace—into the work that makes this possible. If we do not do this, the odds are very high that our conditioning—which our unwitting permission—will continue to select our partners for us, repeating the pattern of leaving us in me-centered bonds that feature little more than two personalized sets of unresolved wounds interlocking and controlling the relation dynamics. To not remain mired in such relational automaticity is a huge step in developing the capacity for real intimacy. Knowing our conditioning inside out means being very familiar with our personal history, recognizing whatever wounding we carry (and how we tend to compensate for it), seeing how and where our conditioning has made our choices, and how and where it is still running us. Breaking our conditioning’s grip on us will not erase it, but will put us in a position where we are not at its mercy: being able to relate not from it, but to it. We will likely need some spiritual guidance to do this. A good place to start is to take a reactive pattern we have and, when we are not feeling reactive, look at it objectively, tracing the raw feeling of it back to when it first arose in our life, noting what triggered it back then. #RandolphHarris 10 of 11
Another area to explore is that of past traumas, which we coped with as children through survival strategies, like dissociating, going numb, diving ourselves, and so on. For many of us, these strategies remain our adult go-to methods when we face conditions that mimic our past circumstances. As natural as it may seem to turn away from or distract ourselves from our pain, we may want to consider practicing turning toward it, daily. When pain arises, acknowledge this as soon as possible, and then direct this undivided attention toward it, taking care not to turn it into suffering (meaning the over-dramatization of pain). Humor is often all that is needed to take care of an emotional problem, because, through humor, pain is acknowledge and put in perspective. Humor is one of those instant insights that puts us on a new place, able to experience negativity without necessarily needing to process it through behavior. We will find ourselves responding to problems with a lighter heart and a more compassionate disposition. And we will find ourselves having a lot more fun. “I have brought you glory on Earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the World began,” reports John 17.4. Now listen, stop worrying, God will not turn you loose for nothin’! #RandolphHarris 11 of 11
The Heaven We Chase—Power is Only Pain Stranded through Discipline for Each Beloved Hour
Love. Who knows about another’s love? The more you love, the more you know the burnt our loss of love, the more the silence of the unknowing in the face of another’s spiritual bondage. Our dilemma is that we are born into a World of others. We are, simply by virtue of being born, a member of at least one social grouping, our family. Thus, one has both an individual identity (“Baby Leo”) and a group identity (“Leo Harris”). He is given, at birth, several statuses or positions which he will occupy. He is first son, or middle child, or change-of-life baby, or only child, maybe even a big brother. He is male. He is European or African or Asian or Hispanic. He inherits a specific religion and an economic classification. However, he is also 1/7.40 billionth of the human population of Earth—a statistic, a fraction of a decimal. This knowledge may eventually give him a sense of insignificance that can overwhelm the other identities and statuses altogether. And this, too, is part of the newborn child’s reality: He is a Somebody. Not Everybody, not Nobody, a Somebody. At times, a child is made to feel that the Sun and Earth rotate around and because of him! At other times, he is reminded: “You are not the only one in this house, you know!” or “You do not want to eat that? Think of all the starving children in the World!” #RandolphHarris 1 of 10
Parents expect him to learn to share, to give-and-take, to earn, produce, strive, achieve, win, compete, and do thousands of things that convince him not only that he is not alone in the World, but that in many cases it is an extremely difficult, dangerous and cutthroat World in which to live. So an individual has to compete with millions of others, and since there are so many of them, one solitary individual often feels that he just does not make much of a difference. This is called the feeling of insignificance. It is more than a feeling that our individual vote, voice, dollar, or presence does not matter much. It is much more than getting lost in the gears or fearing that a computerized machine is going to take our job or feeling that the World is getting too crowded. It is very much akin to being trapped—a feeling that individually and as people we are fighting a losing battle to maintain our own uniqueness and that there appears to be no end in sight. Perhaps this is the strength that we all have at a young age. The child never gets bored of asking “Why?” “Why?” and “Why?” It is the adults instead that are too tired to answer and we do not even know that we are weakening this beneficial strength! Curiosity is taking an interest in ongoing experiences for its own sake; finding subjects and topics fascinating; exploring and discovering. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10
One study shows that curiosity is one of the components of optimal functions and links challenge and novelty with the opportunity to grow. For example, searching for the meaning of things could guide a sense of direction and purpose in life. Furthermore, in social contexts, people with high curiosity are more responsive, infuse more novel twists of excitement to interactions, and are more likely to seek, capitalize, and build on interaction partner disclosures. The anxiety of meaninglessness is anxiety about the loss of an ultimate concern, of a meaning which gives meaning. This anxiety is aroused by the loss of a spiritual center, of an answer, however symbolic and indirect, to the question of the meaning of existence. Everything is tried and nothing satisfies. The contents of the tradition, however excellent, however praised, however loved once, lose their power to give content today. And present culture is even less able to provide the content. Anxiously one turns away from all concrete contents and looks for an ultimate meaning, only to discover that it was precisely the loss of a spiritual center which took away the meaning from the special contents of the spiritual life. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10
However, a spiritual center cannot be produced intentionally, and the attempt to produce it only produces deeper anxiety. The anxiety of emptiness drives us to the abyss of meaninglessness. The question then is this: Is there a courage which can conquer the anxiety of meaninglessness and doubt? Let us look at the times. In the past one hundred- and twenty-eight-years men and women have produced more inventions than have accumulated throughout all of recorded history. This means that the mind of human beings is capable of creating a limitless number of forms and processes. Thus numbers to grow, because of each idea suggest other idea, each machine contains the hint for another machine. People say that no one has created a machine that can think, but that is currently being investigated and hotly debated among some of the most brilliant minds. Scientists have created mechanical apparatuses that can actually repair and, in some cases, completely reproduce themselves. Even if machinery if machinery is limited by the minds of its human devisers, some of the machines perform so well, so faultlessly, that many human beings feels extremely threatened. They have to admit that they cannot produce as much, as often, nor for as long a time, as some of the mechanisms now being manufactured. And these same people wonder if there is any particular advantage in being mortal. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10
The courage to be conquers the threat of meaninglessness by courageous actions. Faith is the basis of the courage to be. Is there a kind of faith which can exist together with doubt and meaninglessness? The act of accepting meaninglessness is in itself a meaningful act. It is an act of faith. The faith which creates the courage to take them into itself has no special content. It is simply faith, undirected, absolute. It is undefinable, since everything defined is dissolved by doubt and meaninglessness. The content of absolute faith is the God above God. Only if the God of theism is transcended can the anxiety of doubt and meaninglessness be taken into the courage to be. The courage to be is rooted in the God who appears when God has disappeared in the anxiety of doubt. Humans are human because man and woman are capable of reflective thought. In the World, some say that humans alone have yet been able to demonstrate that one can cognitively consider his or her own existence, one’s own ending, one’s own limitations, and one’s own strengths. Perhaps the limitations of human’s communicative abilities keeps them from knowing any more than one does about the talents of others members of the Earthly kingdom; nevertheless, what one is sure of is that humans can perform these other, higher acts. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10
Let us be faithful to what we have believed and know. The human’s ability to anticipate, to project oneself into abstract situations, to think of things not present and physically real to one: these are evidences of advanced cerebral functioning. In the search for significance it is time that people dwelt upon these features that make one unique among other living beings. People’s ideas about themselves both limit one and set one free. A person can call oneself cripple (or an Eighteenth Street prisoners) and that is just what one will limit oneself to being. Or, an individual can say that he or she is a free thinker and adventurer and one can get to Jupiter and beyond. Humans have spiritual gifts and propensities. Pray to understand your spiritual gifts—to cultivate, use, and expand them, even more than you ever have. One person will change the World as they pray to better understand their spiritual gifts. As Godly people, you can inspire others and set a standard of worthy emulation. Each decade of life brings unique challenges, and yet, many people, week after week, still mingle together and teach the word of God together, and make a real difference in the World. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10
The potentials of the natural essence of human beinghood have scarcely been touched. When all the facts are in, we may find that humans do have E.S.P, that one is affected by movements of stars and planets, that one has a soul, that one has an afterlife. However, we are primarily interested in finding out through studies and approaches that begin with capabilities and experiences that are accessible and familiar to all people, right now! As humanists, we follow what has become an informal Code for Humanism based accepted guidelines for humanistic orientation in the study of who and what we are and how and why we live our lives the way we do: Because we are a part of Nature, we are evolutionary products of the Nature of which we are active participants; our minds are inseparably joined with the functioning of our brains; and as inseparable unity of body and personhood, we can have a conscious (or real) survival in eternal life. As impossible as that may seem with all you are trying to manage in your life, if you will accept this invitation with full purpose of heart, the Lord will help you find a way to achieve it. And, as you prayerfully study, I promise that the Heavens will open for you. The Lord will bless you with increased inspiration and revelation. You and your family will be drawn closer to the Savior through this process. And changes, even miracles, will begin to happen. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10
With courage, vision, and reliance on our own human resources, we can solve the problems we have created and which are imposed on us by natural circumstances or happenstance. Although most of us are conditioned by the past and even the present, we have genuine freedom of creative choice and action, and within certain objective limits, are masters of our own destiny. The humanist ethic or morality bases all human values in the experiences and relationships of this Earth and has as its highest goal the happiness, freedom, and progress (economic, cultural, personal, and ethical) of all humankind in this World. A full appreciation of cultural values and contributions is also part of this morality. However, observation shows that only very few persons are capable of remaining polite, not to speak of objective, in any scientific dispute, and the impression gained from a scientific quarrel was always a horror to me. Perhaps this attitude of mine has been misunderstood, perhaps I have been considered as good-natured or so intimidated that it was supposed no further consideration need be shown me. An individual attains the good life by harmoniously combining personal satisfaction and continuous self-actualization with significant activities that contribute to the welfare of one’s human community. No person is an island, nor is one part of a mob; people are both an individual and a member of one’s society and culture and World. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10
Please teach those whom you love what you learn from the scriptures. Teach them our to turn to the Savior for his healing and cleansing power when they sin. And teach them how to draw upon one’s strengthening power every day of their lives. This will allow the Lord to teach you how to draw upon his priesthood power with which you have been endowed. This view of life proposes a far-reaching social program that stands for the establishment through the World, peace, and a high standard of living on the foundations of a flourishing economic order, both national and international. Such a view assumes that we can operate with the fullest resources available to us as humans and that our reason and science, utilized in humanitarian fashion, can provide for full freedom of expression and civil liberties in all areas of economic, political, and cultural life. In the development of this new way of life, the esthetic experience can and must become a pervasive reality in the lives of people. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in Heaven, for in the same way they have persecuted the prophets before you,” reports Matthew 5.11. You have permission from God to love yourself. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10
Together we can do all that our Heavenly Father needs us to do to prepare the World for the Seconding Coming of his Beloved Son. Such view proves that we can operate with the fullest resources available to us as humans and that our reason and science, utilized in a humanitarian fashion, can provide for full freedom of expression and civil liberties in all areas of economic, political, and cultural life. “God created humans after his own image, and God gave humans commandments, and because of transgression, humans had fallen,” report Alma 22.12. In the development of this new way of life, the esthetic experience can and must become a pervasive reality in the lives of people. Humanists advocate the widest possible development of art and the awareness of beauty. They also insist on the ending questioning of a basic assumptions and convictions including their own in order to develop a way of living life that is always open to experimental testing, newly discovered information, and more rigorous reasoning. The emphasis here on reasoning is not a contradiction of our previous statements on the importance of emotion, group experience, interaction, and other human experiences. Introspection, the self-report of our own thoughts, ideas, reactions, moods, feelings, is very important. Reason, combined with the other human resources, can make our lives fuller, freer, more satisfying, and enable us to better understand and live with the other 7.4 billion human beings who occupy space on Earth. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10
Silence Suffused the Story and a Softness the Teller’s Eye and the Children No Further Questioned
I left them and opened the door and went out on the rear balcony. The breeze had picked up. The banana trees were dancing against the stucco walls. I could see the white roses in the dark. An illicit fire burnt inside of me. My heart was thudding. I would have liked the long way—a walk uptown through streets narrow and wide, the open-mouthed roar of the streetcar or its heavy metal clatter through Holden Drive, the vision of the pilgrim oaks struggling on lower Jewel Street, the festering flowers of the Garden District, and the glistening moss on the bricks. Though these different ultimate searches do not follow a straight-line progression, it is interesting to see how people search for meaning in life and do see how things like the wind reverently receiving strange words seem to form a pattern. As one search runs it course or proves to be a sterile course, another comes along full of challenge and promise. After the Enlightenment, historically, people pursed several variations on different themes, some emphasizing perfection and morality again, and others emphasizing the need for pleasure. However, since there are always a few individuals who try to get above the concerns of their everyday existence, new ideas and new goals continually arise. “Listen to the words of Christ, your Redeemer, your Lord and your God,” reports Moroni 8.8. #RandolphHarris 1 of 14
Many thinking and aware people are shocked when the idea of human finitude is suddenly brought to their attention. Many people are aware of this intellectually, but have not really known the idea of mortality emotionally: this time on Earth will not last forever. Our souls are immortal, but our bodies are not yet. We are still on this mortal journey and our goal is not only immortality, but eternal life. We have something to do with our lives between mortality and eternal life, we need to find the meaning for our existence, for it may well be all that we have on Earth. Ask yourself whether there is a distinguishable goal in your mind that corresponds to something worthwhile on Earth and will help you reach eternal life. We often open a book, expecting to encounter an author, and we meet a man or a woman! When we read another person’s experience, this is what happens. Our own existence is not at all a matter of speculation, but a reality in which we are personally and passionately involved. Anyone who chooses or is forced to choose decisively—for a lifetime, and thus for eternity, since only one life is allowed us—experiences his or her own existence as something well beyond the simple mirror of thought. One experiences the Self that one is, not the idea of that Self. “For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable being; but he is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity,” reports Moroni 8.18. #RandolphHarris 2 of 14
Once we begin digging into the meaning of our own existence, we find a problem. What do we mean by meaning? Meaning here dicates that we must find it possible and necessary to become intimately, passionately, subjectively, aware of everything about our own existence. And we do this not with book-learning, theory, or formal instruction, or even mediation. We do this by existing so fully, so real-ly, that existence takes hold of us. In order to make the very best use of our mind, we have to pay special attention to the integration phase of learning. As we persist in the reflection process, we will find that unless we find the courage to confront our pain, it will haunt us forever. After several weeks of silent soul-searching and reconstructing what has been lost, it will unburden the soul and allow for renewed energy. One will start to feel more optimistic. Many will find that the worst phase of their grief and self-recrimination will end the day they give up looking at the past and began to focus on the future. Look forward with a different sense of self—become tougher, more self-confident. Pay attention to your day dreams, they are likely guiding you to something your soul is seeking. And once God has put a vision in your heart, he also has placed a date of completion for it to come true. #RandolphHarris 3 of 14
The Rationalists, the Enlightenment people, all talked about grasping hold of knowledge. The existentialist talks about becoming one with one’s own existence: living fully, experiencing widely. Meaning, then, comes from existence. For many people, worry over the physical aspects of getting older far overshadows other concerns, and it is tempting, in the face of so many seemingly immense obstacles, to throw in the proverbial towel or kick the imaginary bucket and focus instead on mental or emotional skills that can compensate for physical declines. However, we are people of God and are not supposed to have bucket lists, we have goals and dreams and aspirations about how to improve our life on Earth and how to prepare for eternal life. We are not born to fail, give up, nor run away. We have the spirit of golden state warriors, and much of what upsets us about our body can be fixed or improved upon; current research on biological gaining is very encouraging and could eventually lead to immortality on Earth. Also, the physical component of our journey is intricately connected to all other components. If our body is not functioning near its best, our mind, emotions, and relationships cannot be at their peak. Your body may like hanging out on the couch, but it also wants and needs regular exercise, nutritious food, and understanding. #RandolphHarris 4 of 14
Most important, is your body willing and able to take you where you want to go? If you are already in terrific shape, do not make the mistake of assuming you have nothing to gain by going down the path of physical vigor. There is more to the physical side of you than simply being in great shape. We have the opportunity to enrich our physical experience by becoming more attuned to the unique ways our bodies express their needs. Furthermore, by giving ourselves more peak physical experiences, we put ourselves on the path to greater mental, emotion, and spiritual rewards. However, for many people, they blame one another for their tragic state of existence. Loyalties and faith dissolve; inhumanity began to dominate the lives of some people. Most of all, however, people affected by disorder allow defeat and despair and disintegration rob them of their desires or needs. Eventually, everything will be sacrificed for the sake of simple survival. Various psychological and psychoanalytic explanations have been given to explain what happens to people who are imprisoned by their minds and expecting a state of lack and limitation. One theory is that under such hideous stress, the person simply regresses to a primitive level of functioning. “For they do not repent, and the adversary stirreth them up continually to anger one with another,” reports Moroni 9.3. #RandolphHarris 5 of 14
Another view is that the person cannot control their minds, but allows their minds to control them, they develop characteristics that resemble those of a schizoid character. Some will relate to reality only when it is nonthreatening, and to fantasy (by withdrawing from other people, for example) when reality it too burdensome. The view of limitation and transitoriness of life itself can easily bring about an existential loss of structure. They feel there is no escape and consequently no end to suffering. When a person cannot conceive of an end point, of a future, one is in danger of falling apart inwardly. “I fear least the Spirit of the Lord hath ceased striving with them. For so exceedingly do they anger that is seemeth me that they have no fear of death; and they have lost their love, one towards another; and they thirst after blood and revenge continually. And now, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God,” reports Moroni 8.4-6. #RandolphHarris 6 of 14
However, for some souls, suffering, poverty, pain, and humiliation will not allow them to feel apathy, futility, nor despair. People who have a strong faith in God are able to sustain their hope, and to assist in lifting others up and teaching them the love of God. “And Christ truly said unto our fathers: if ye have faith ye can do all things which are expedient unto me,” Moroni 10.23. Although people have lost their homes, cars, clothes, jewelry, and every physical, material, tangible scrap of people property have been taken like their great grandmothers’ picture, their grandmothers wedding picture, and property belong to their grandfather, and their bodies were stripped bare and subject to torment, anguish, humiliation, filth, and shame, one thing could not be touch and was therefore free! This one thing—perhaps that which distinguishes humans from idiots—is their sense of Being, of Selfhood, their freedom of thought and attitude. “I can do everything through him who gives me strength,” reports Philippians 4.13. When I think of the Winchester mansion, that is one passage I am always reminded of. “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you,” reports Philippians 3.8. Being less affluent does not automatically make a person a prisoner. #RandolphHarris 7 of 14
No matter what our financial status is or what side of the river we live on—a person is still free to decide whether one will become a prisoner or remain a people who happens to have faith in the Lord and will persevere. Although many people will succumb to the traps of the adversary, we must still commit ourselves to the fundamental possibility of preserving our humanity. We must serve as examples to others, and a chain reaction will be set off that will inspire and perhaps save the lives of many others. In this endeavor it is very important to know who you are an where you are, because the knowledge will help you to be gentle and patient with yourself and others as you go. Remind yourself of your strengths, and of any ways in which you are already in concert with God’s commandments. “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the imaged of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in Heaven and on Earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together,” reports Colossians 1.13-17. #RandolphHarris 8 of 14
God will bring not only our conscious level but also the deeper levels of our life, which we cannot reach, into perfect harmony. Even without belongings, dignity, privacy, and rank, we are still human beings and children of God. What does that mean? It means that we can keep a bit of our own Self in our hearts and minds and no one can take that away from us. Not even a threat or a trap can take that away, no matter where we are or what we are experiencing, we still have freedom. And no one can take that away! The only way we can lose our humanity is to give it up, sacrifice it to despair! “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to this glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light,” reports Colossians 1.9-12. #RandolphHarris 9 of 14
So, in this way, many people are able to find meaning in an apparently meaningless life. For they keep a private reserve of faith, hope, pride, decision-making, choice-making and have the ability that is right of every practicing human being who knows God. And being human takes continual practice! “Yea come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God, reports Moroni 10.32. That is why people fear God and want to rob you of their religion, because they realize no human has more power over God, and as long as you believe in God, a person will never be your master, nor will you fear anything they can do to you. The adversary, human or otherwise, knows that as long as you believe in God, you have a light inside you and hope for a better day and know that you will have eternal life with God, which is much more powerful than anything a human can offer or take away from you! Therefore, remember the joys you had, the love you have experienced, the fulfillments that have been yours. #RandolphHarris 10 of 14
By fulling your consciousness with times have been and will be meaningful, one is able to block out the seemingly meaningless present. And, by nurturing private hope, one is able to preserve one’s own meaningfulness. Work to acquire each habit you desire, one at a time, beginning with the easiest. Then tackle the next easiest, and so on. However, many people sabotage their efforts at lifestyle change by taking on too much at once. Only after one habit becomes almost automatic (and this may take days, months, or years) should you proceed to the next one. For example, it has taken me months to get back in the habit of praying and giving thanks before my meals, I have even had to place signs on the refrigerator and on the wall near my table. And I remember to pray 85 percent of the time before a mean now. Sometimes I may have to stop eating and pray during my meal, but I make sure to give God thanks. Therefore, do not be surprised, however, if in accomplishing one beneficial lifestyle change that one may acquire another. Our bodies and minds tend to shift in many ways with only one intervention. Look for these physical and mental and spiritual epiphanies and welcome one’s newfound capacity to bring balance and harmony to one’s own mind, body, and spirit. #RandolpHarris 11 of 14
Games! Fraud! Trickery! Those are some of them terms you may have muttered as you read these lines. “That is not true meaningfulness! That is deceiving oneself!” Maybe we should reiterate to you that each person has to give meaning to each of his or her own experiences; that, by themselves, some experiences are simply neutral, devoid of any quality. A bit of diligence with this relatively easy shift in one’s lifestyle habits will help revive one’s stamina. Because all we can control is ourselves. Also, some people think that by starving themselves, they will lose weight, but the body will retain water and cause you to eat like it is a competition when you start eating. So, if you are really looking to lose a few extra pounds, nutritionists tell us that the earlier in the day we start eating, the earlier we begin to increase our metabolism and burn calories. Therefore, in that same manner, our creative approach to improving our minds is a terrific example of the ways in which individual tastes can be the heart of individual success. Sometimes spiritual experts know more than a novice because they have been there before, and that is why I said, my testimony is still unfolding, and I think someone more mature would be better to teach you, but I can share what has been helping me get through these dark and painful days, weeks, months, and years. #RandolphHarris 12 of 14
This is very subjective existence. However, with the existential thinkers we must raise the question: how can one’s own existence be anything but subjective? There are other examples of this procedure of being. During the war, allied soldiers in Vietnam reported doing the same sort of thing, through they did not attach the philosophical labels to it. Nor did they have video cameras nor medical staff to help them and document their journey. All they had was each other and God. Some people relieved the fear and emptiness of their service in the war by playing mental games. We have accounts of people who worked out math problems entirely in their heads. Others played chess games, conceiving each move mentally and retaining an image of each piece’s location on the board. Others were able to envision their wives, sweethearts, children or future children, homes, cars, and other meaningful personal experiences. These reminiscences and attempts to recreate the happy parts of their lives actually pulled many of these people through times when the darkness that seemed to have no ending filled their lives. Some would call this faith in God. Others would say that it is part of the most fundamental learning of the human being: to anticipate, to recall, to choose, to commit, to follow through. “If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us,” reports Mark 9.22. #RandolphHarris 13 of 14
It is in the place of humiliation that we find our true worth to God–that is where our faithfulness is revealed. Most of us can do things is we are always at some heroic level of intensity, simply because of the natural selfishness of our own hearts. However, God wants us to be at the drab everyday level, where we live in the valley according to our personal relationship with him. Each of these searches mentioned is important. Together they form the living, quivering, suffering, occasionally cracking mosaic of human experience. It is good and necessary to experience pleasure and joy, wisdom and learning, transcendent relatedness, whether to God or to Nature or to the Outside of Self, perfection or the search for it, and, of course, to the ability to actualize the most potential aspects of our humanness by conferring meaning on our own existence. However, there seems to be more. It is all well and good to find one’s own existence meaningful, to know that one has an identity no one else can take away. However, what seems to be emerging now is a search to establish oneself as significant. That is why everyone is trying to do something that means something to the masses. #RandolphHarris 14 of 14
The Brain is Wider than the Sky and Deeper than the Sea–It is the Love of God!
You think she is keeping secrets from you. Magic secrets, secrets you have not explained to anyone. You have resented her all these years as the doctor, the mad scientist, yes, right, the mad scientist, the keeper of the keys to the magic, coming in and out of your chamber and never really telling you what was happening. I can see these words sinking down, down into your mind, and what you sense is you cannot deny and cannot retreat from all the truths. Is God giving you the power to writhe and spit with anger? Because in the Christian religion, absolution is the act of forgiving someone for something negative that they have done or thought. The love you should feel in your heart is something one cannot know in shallow wanderings. Friendship, trust, honor, respect, admiration—this whole experience is supposed to be a revelation. Once is supposed to do all they can to protect you and watch the Sunrise in your eyes. As those who have indeed entered into a sacred covenant, we must remain true to the way, the truth, and the life. Adam, the prototypical First Man, is created perfect. He is veritably the image of God. However, for reasons that differ in interpretation by as many splinter sects as they have produced, Adam committed a disobedient act, eating a piece of forbidden fruit, and was condemned by God to work and sweat and become mortal, instead of being immortal as the original plan dictated. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10
This concept has been called the doctrine of The Fall of Man, the Depravity of Man, and other similar names. It assumes that man, originally created to be perfect, fell from that state of perfection and must go through all kinds of rituals, ordeals, trials, and tests to regain some sort of tentative perfection, or, as it is often called, Salvation. However, there is nothing in the World more deleterious or harmful to the human family than hatred, prejudice, suspicion, and the attitude that some people have toward their fellows of unkindness. In matters of politics, whenever politics cause one to speak unkindly of another person, know this, that one is on dangerous ground. The great mission of the latter-day kingdom is not to be a militant church to which we belong. This is a church that holds out peace to the World. It is not our duty to go into the World and find fault with others, neither to criticize people because they do not understand. However, it is our privilege, in kindness and love, to go among others share with them the love of God. Wherever we live in the World, we have been molded as a people to be instruments of the Lord’s peace. God has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. We cannot afford to be caught up in a World prone to give and to take offense. We must neither envy, nor be puffed up in pride. We are not easily provoked, nor do we behave unseemly. We rejoice not in iniquity, but in truth. Surely this is pure love of Jesus Christ which we represent. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10
It seems clear to even a casual reader of the words of Jesus Christ that attaining this Salvation is a matter of a rather complete change of heart, resulting in better behavior toward one’s fellow humans. “The Lord God hath given a commandment that all men (people) should have charity,” reports 2 Nephi 26.30. Needless to say, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and all the churches since have made Salvation-searching a bit more complicated! We cannot expect all our readers to agree with this, but it is a very respectable and well-studied viewpoint. Following in the wake of a difficult period, the young Christian movement became an institution. When we turn to God and by belief accept what God reveals, the miraculous atonement by the Cross of Christ instantly places us into a right relationship with God. And as a result of the supernatural miracle of God’s grace, we stand justified. The followers of Jesus became a community of believers, and with the acceptance of Christianity by the Roman Emperior, Constantine, it became the Church. With institutionalization came the exclusive right to interpret the doctrines according to Church Law. It also brought the right to publish new doctrines. One of these, with very speculative scriptural basis, is priestly celibacy. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10
The doctrine that leaders of the Church should forsake the pleasures of sexual activity and family living did more than just make the priests a special category of people. It also elevated the idea of celibacy above the more prevalent practice of enjoying sexual pleasures. This not only made ordinary people feel that their priests were superior human beings because they could follow a vow of chastity, but also made many millions of non-celibate people feel a bit inferior, since there were not forgetting their bodies and the drive built into them. Some have even felt extreme guilt for their base, primal nature. “And now, as the preaching of the word has a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God. And again we thank thee O God, that we are a chosen and a holy people. Amen,” reports Alma 31.5 and 18. We will never know the joy of abstaining until we surrender in every detail of our lives. Yet abstaining is the most difficult thing for us to do. However, as soon as we do totally surrender, the Holy Spirit gives us a taste of his joy. “The kingdom of God is near you,” reports Luke 10.9. There are many different levels on which one’s mind can work. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10
The systematic study of human behavior must include looking objectively at such long-held and sacred doctrines as celibacy. What do such beliefs do to human beings? Examples tumble forth: St. Anthony of Padua, under a vow of celibacy, lived alone in a cave to shut out the World and make meditation more possible Being only a man, he dreamed dreams of sexual activity that woke him from his sleep. He was disgusted and disappointed at his body’s inability to see that his soul was in charge, so he punished his body for responding so naturally. He rolled himself in briar bushes, letting the thorns rip through his flesh and tear at the so weak and fragile body in which his soul was imprisoned. St. Bernard of Clairvaux dreamed even worse dreams than did St. Anthony. His sexual dreams concerned the Virgin Mary. He punished himself for such an offense. St. Francis of Assisi was a gentle and kind little man. He was convinced of the vileness of his physical body and its drives that he tried through flagellation, whipping himself, and going on long periods of fasting to force his body to give up its demands and release his soul. Martin Luther, while still a Catholic priest, also engaged in flagellation in search for salvation for his soul, at his body’s expense. One of the foremost tenets of the Lutheran Church, founded after Luther split with Rome, was that salvation could never come through works such as flagellation and vows of good deeds; it came through simple faith. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10
The search for spiritual perfection has left many a mark on human’s history, some beneficial and some destructive. Out of Christianity’s concern for other human beings has come the development of hospitals, both physical and mental. In spite of many abuses and colonial enterprises that were exploitative, much good has been done by Christian missionaries for people who needed to acquire certain academic skills and better understanding of health measures. On the other hand, many of the most infamous acts in history are traceable, directly or eventually, to attempts at Perfection and/or Salvation. The Crusades are but one example. Others are the Holy Wars, the Holy Inquisition, and the persecution of witches in New England is Sacramento, California (Prisoners of the River). When Christian nations go to war and religious leaders in those nations proclaim that the holy war carried on in God’s or in Christ’s name, it can for some be the most offensive extensions of this search. The Lord’s people must be at peace one with another during times of trouble, regardless of what loyalties they may have to different governments or parties. God lives. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and, love your neighbor as yourself,” reports Luke 10.27. Let us daily renew in our hearts the pure love of Christ and overcome with our Master the darkness of the World. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10
A similar search, not always linked to religious belief, is the finding of perfection in the fullest development of human’s intellectual and rational capabilities. “The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 93.36. This thrust has been called by various names (Rationalism, Age of Enlightenment, etc.), which, though differing in individual matters, all emphasized human’s search for wisdom and knowledge. The sons of the Enlightenment—Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Voltaire—were sure that through rational means people could become masters of all, lords of eternity. Noble as it was, this emphasis on intellectual and cognitive skills became the hobby of a secret elite. To have the time, energy, and ambition needed for intellectual pursuits, one needed to be wealthy or living in a monastery or the pet of some wealthy patron. The large masses of people had more basic pursuits—getting enough to feed themselves and their families, keeping a roof over their heads, and fighting off the many obstacles of less affluent existence. For the majority of the population, rationalism and intellectual activity had no survival value. However, all who are faithful will see the Lord is a promise made to people who had to devote their lives to earning a living. Do whatever it takes to improve your confidence in your creativity. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10
The idea of an Intellectual Elite is still with us. We subsidize think tanks in various parts of the nation, where highly trained and vastly experienced men and women come together to pool ideas, to explore rationally the urgent issues of our times. “And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good,” reports Abraham 3.23. Yet, too much of this valuable brainwork goes unshared by the ordinary mortals who may be just as intelligent, but who have more immediate personal obligations and commitments. “Intelligences that were organized before the World was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones,” reports Abraham 3.22. The worship of intellectual power, the predisposition to believe that all problems can be rationally solved and the subsequent ignoring of other aspects of human experience like emotion, joy, and fellowship, creates an imbalance in social attitudes that is ultimately detrimental to the individual’s sense of significance. The Enlightenment period made people aware of their brains and untapped potential of human intelligence, and for this we are grateful. Solving mental games can actually raise measurable Intelligence Quotient (you will notice you get better at the capacity to learn). #RandolphHarris 8 of 10
However, because of a continuing tendency to believe the human beings need only to accumulate information, to gather knowledge, to amass wisdom, with no need for feedback into the pool of human experience, we would ask the worshippers of Knowledge to consider the question, “Knowledge for what?” Our personal intelligence is everlasting and divine. There is a dignity of the human spirit. Because of our sacred regard for each human intellect, we consider the obtaining of an education to be a religious responsibility. Yet opportunities and abilities differ. In the pursuit of education, individual desire is more influential than institution, and personal faith more forceful than faculty. God assures us that knowledge acquired on Earth with me ours forever. “Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through he or her diligence and obedience than another, one will have so much more advantage in the World to come,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 130.18 and 19. Our crystallized intelligence workout also facilitates our understanding of complex issues in our personal life. We are laying the ground work for other areas of growth. Your work will actually promote neurological change, which can increase the rate and depth of your growth. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10
If our mind is sharp, we will have an easier time understanding the paradoxes of spirituality, or the fundamentals of interpersonal effectiveness. Once we have reached a place where we continually challenge and enjoy our mind, we deserve to celebrate. Wisdom is one of the special virtues that humans possess. Mastering new skills, topics, and bodies of knowledge, whether on one’s own for formally is related to the strength of curiosity. Love of learning does not have to be limited to only in a school or classroom. The World is the biggest classroom ever. We can enhance this strength by going out and engaging in new skills and experiences. Wisdom is the key to improving ourselves and it helps us tackle challenges and setbacks. People with high strengths in love of learning can maintain a sense of efficacy and motivation while learning longer than those who do not. Wisdom is used for the sake oneself and others well-being. People with the strength and thirst for knowledge see things through a wider lens. In addition, perspective is all about the experiences. Perspective or wisdom can be developed through life tasks, adjustments, coming to terms with life choices, life changes, and stressful life experiences. Wisdom provides a great advantage to human beings. Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. There are many different ways to explore and expand the mind, using it to help one decide what one wants in life and how to get it. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10
When Heaven Looked Upon Us All with Such Severity–I Felt Apology were Due to an Insulted Sky!
You cannot imagine what it is like to give birth to one of these babies, they speak to you even from the womb, they know you, and you know them, and they are hardwired with the knowledge of their kind. That is what a woman once told me about pregnancy and child birth. At the most basic level of existence, human beings are an organism. This word means that their aliveness is described by the same fundamental characteristics found in any organism in nature: irritability of the protoplasm, nutrition and digestion, reproduction, and motility. Whatever else humans are, one begins with their biological existence and not only builds that, but also builds with it. For it is a wondrous piece of equipment, this body that humans possess. It is weaker and more fragile than many animal bodies, and more prone to disease and destruction than many. It has senses less acute than most others animals’. Human beings also have the longest period of dependency on parents of any organism in nature—nearly 18 years. And by no means do humans live the longest. Their evolved posture makes them among the least coordinated organisms and has rendered the human frame and internal organs particularly vulnerable to all kinds of infirmaries and disorders. Yet, the human brain and the rest of the nervous system of human’s body are of a quality unduplicated in nature thus far. #RandolphHarris 1 of 14
There must be a reason why emotions are part of our human nature, though we cannot fully explain it. Probably there are survival values attached to certain strongly-felt emotions, such as fear, anger, surprise, and sorrow. However, even beyond this, a human being meeting the variety of experiences life presents cannot help but realize that a great part of really getting into life is emotional and sensate and intuitive, as well as merely cognitive. An instinct, experience, or tendency has survival value if it helps (or once helped) human beings to stay alive. Dependence on instinctive behaviors has been far exceeded by reliance on learned behavior, making humans more in control of their lives than any other organism. Thus, we can say we are first of all highly specialized organisms, organized systems of nucleic acids, performing vital function, with sensory and neural mechanisms of a particularly selective brand. However, what else? A porpoise is also an organism with a highly specialized nervous system. So is a chimpanzee. So are millions of creatures further down the evolutionary scale. We could add to these traits the fact that this particular nervous system enables us to learn, but a fantastic array of other organisms can be conditioned, can profit from trial-and-error experiences, can imitate, can be instructed. Is it in the kinds of things we can learn that a proper distinction can be found? #RandolphHarris 2 of 14
Human beings find themselves born into a beautiful World. They live in a whirlpool of love, caring, happiness, and are blessed by the ultimate goal of trying to gain access to eternal life. People would like to escape from the burden of anxiety, but one would also like to know its meaning. Our instinctive emotions are those that we have inherited from a much more primitive World, and contain, therefore, a larger portion of fear than they should. Instinctive responses are those which are natural or inborn, not learned. Psychologically, it is nearly impossible never to feel fear. However, we have all learned society’s attitudes about it, so, in order not to appear cowardly, people deny their fears, jump boldly into danger, and may die foolishly and needlessly. Anxiety is similar to gear, but far more common to most of us is the emotion of anxiety. Other names for anxiety are worry, dread, and apprehension—Chicken Little crying out “The sky is falling!” Anxiety is usually based on threats or dangers that are indefinite or are not real or very likely to come right away. People living in the Sacramento Valley might be worried about the protection the dams and levees provide and might be justified in fearing them failing, since the Oroville dam (the tallest dam in the US 770 feet (235 meters) failed in February 2017, and 188,000 people were evacuated. The total cost to repair exceeded $400 million. #RandolphHarris 3 of 14
The main thing in life is not to be afraid to be human. As far as is known, only human beings can control and use fire. Human life has been differentiated from other animals not only because of their use of fire, but also because of their development of shelter, clothing, tools, weapons, complex social structures, and the practice of some form of magic or worship. The tranquility of the souls is based on reconciliation with God and each other. If we are meek and courageous enough to pursue it, the Holy Spirit will guide us and we cannot fail. The amazing thing about being human is that even the complex social structures built by people are somewhat different from those found in troops of baboons or colonies of paper wasps. Human’s social structures seem to spring not necessarily from instinct, but from cultural patterns built up around both biological and social needs. The patterns of family, for instance, are designed to meet both the bodily biological needs for sexual activity, touch-tenderness, nurturance and protection and instruction of the young, and for division of labor. The human family is much more than a springboard from which the young dive into adult living. The miracle of reconciliation is always available to us, and out of the for the family and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we know to be true. #RandolphHarris 4 of 14
Other questions about human’s nature are raised by persons interested in the existence of soul, or spirit. This concept, however, is apparently more than just another name for human’s essence, because most religious systems relate soul to some outside, transcendent, pre-existing, surviving Force. This Force is known to most people in the Judeo-Christian heritage as God. Many scientists, and psychologist in particular, are generally unwilling or reluctant to admit religious or theological notions into their theories and practice. They maintain that religion and belief in God are, for the most part, super-naturalistic, beyond the concerns of science. However, the practice of religious belief and the behavior which results from believing are appropriate areas of concern and study, even if the beliefs themselves are in super-natural subjects. Therefore, since so many sincere people hold meaningful notions concerning the soul—some equate soul and mind and consciousness—an exploration of the concept can add to our understanding of human nature. Willingness to forgive and move forward in spite of the imperfections of others has brought blessings that are still coming—and will come forever. As humans, we have been asked to live together in love with no disputations among us. Spirit of contention is not for us. #RandolphHarris 5 of 14
Indeed, a great degree of out relationship to God will be determined—or at least affected—by our relationship to each other. Among the many things we find in humans that we have not yet been able to find in other animals is a concern with Value. In its simplest definition value means the worth of something. So far as we know, only humans set up criteria of value by which to judge everything from pickle relish at the country fair to abstract qualities like Goodness, Truth, Beauty, Justice, and Right. Surely each of us could cite an endless array of old scars and sorrows and painful memories that this very moment still corrodes the peace in someone’s heart or family or neighborhood. Whether we have caused that pain or been the recipient of the pain, those wounds need to be healed so that life can be as rewarding as God intended it to be. Like that old, stale chocolate cake in your refrigerator and the sour ice cream in the freezer that your grandchildren carefully check on your behalf, those old grievances have long since exceeded their expiration date. Children are too young to realize things expire sometimes, but as an adult, please do not give precious space in your soul to them any longer. Let us not compromise our spirit for some old cookies and spoiled milk. #RandolphHarris 6 of 14
Humans began putting value-labels on things probably when they first found themselves choosing between things they needed and those they did not. No doubt early people found that they could keep or carry or guard only so many things, which is why diamonds, sliver, and gold have such a high value, and had to decide which were necessary, useful, vital for their survival and which were not. This evaluative process was expanded when these early men and women and children began grouping together and had to make judgments about which items and actions had survival-value for individuals, for groups, and eventually for societies. Later, of course, as societies became more complex and mere physical survival became a less critical concern, necessities—and thus values—were redefined in terms of other needs, likes, or wants. It is also important for people to realize that God did not say that you are not allowed to feel true pain or real sorrow from the shattering experiences one has had at the hand of another. Nor did God say in order to forgive fully, one has to reenter a toxic relationship or return to an abusive, destructive circumstance. However, notwithstanding even the most terrible offenses that might come to us, we can rise above our pain only when we put our feet onto the path of true healing. #RandolpHarris 7 of 14
God is the Healer of every wound, God rights every wrong, and asks us to labor with him in the daunting task of peacemaking in a World that will not find it any other way. Some people are letting miserable misunderstandings run on from year to year, and even for decades because they do not want to face justice; many are also keeping wretched quarrels live with the vicious imaginations; and often people speak to others out of spite or to merely annoy them. If we are lettings people’s hearts ache for a word of appreciation or sympathy, we must realize that we may never have another chance to show our appreciation for others. Human beings are a valuing creature, and we can now wonder at the multitude of things which have been stacked on top of each other as humans have tried to organize their values. These systems and hierarchies have had a deep effect on the way in which people have lived their life and related to others. By addressing problems before they can grow larger, conscientious individuals maintain better healthy overall and, on average, live longer with better quality life. Conscientious individuals also perform better at some jobs than others. We always know when God is at work because he produces in the commonplace something that is inspiring. If one knows of an old injury, or a relationship needs mending, repair it. Care for one another in love. #RandolphHarris 8 of 14
In our World of reconciliation, it is up to us to be peacemakers—to love peace, to seek peace, to create peace, to cherish peace. We make this appeal in the name of God. “Behold, now I say unto you that he commands you to repent, you can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God. But behold, this is not all—he has commanded you to repent, or he will utterly destroy you from off the face of the Earth; yea, he will visit you in anger, and in his fierce anger he will not turn away,” reports Alma 9.12. The placement of highest value on happiness actually begins with a belief that the greatest good is Pleasure. Good is the pleasure of the individual: I know not how I can conceive of the good, if I withdraw the pleasures of hearing, and withdraw the pleasurable emotions caused by the sight of beautiful form. All the living creatures as soon as they are born take delight in pleasure, but resist pain by a natural impulse apart from reason. Things are good insofar as they are pleasant. “Now devote your heart and soul to seeking the LORD your God. Begin to build the sanctuary of the LORD God, so that you may bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD and the sacred articles belonging to God into the temple that will be built for the Name of the LORD,” reports 1 Chronicles 17. #RandolphHarris 9 of 14
Whatever is the object of any person’s appetite or desire, that it is which for his or her part one calls good. Please is the Greatest Good. We endeavor, wish, desire, or long for nothing because we deem it good; but, on the other hand, we deem a thing good because we endeavor, wish for, or long for it. Eternal life is thought to be pleasurable because we will not only be immortal, but we will live eternally, with God, and that is why we find being good and obeying God pleasurable. It is thought that once we reach eternal life, we will be able to create our own Worlds and that is certainly something to aspire to. Therefore, that is why we must love each other and not only selfishly seek pleasure, but aim for the greatest happiness of all humankind. “Acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek God, he will be found by your; but if you forsake God, he will reject you forever. Consider now, for the LORD has chosen you to build a temple as a sanctuary. Be strong and do the work,” reports 1 Chronicles 28.9. Large-scale happiness is something we are to strive for. Many of us are motivated by our instinctive biological urges to gain pleasure and avoid pain. “The Lord will deliver you out of bondage accord to his pleasure,” Mosiah 7.33. #RandolphHarris 10 of 14
What about this? We have felt with the biologists and others that we all are equipped with bodies that are capable of responding easily and readily to pleasure and which turn away from pain as often as possible, We know that all the touch receptors contained in the body are far more receptive and sensitive to pain than to any other feeling and thus we get the idea that avoiding painful injury is one of the most important tasks of our sensory equipment. Thinking that you are aware is altogether different from being aware of thinking. Working with our mind means being consciously and undividedly attentive to whatever arises in it—thoughts, fantasies, images, judgments, comparisons. (A well-grounded mindful practice is very helpful with the practice of this.) Most of what arises in our minds is invoked unbidden. Becoming aware of this is the beginning of mindfulness. Observing what our mind is doing, and maintaining this awareness for more than a few minutes is not easy, but must be learned if we are to cease being automatically run or hooked by what passes through our minds. The opposite end of the discomfort continuum is pleasure, total comfort, and thus human striving away from pain puts the attainment of pleasure very high on the priority list. “Gates of hell shall not prevail against those who build upon Jesus Christ’s doctrine,” reports 3 Nephi 11.39. #RandolphHarris 11 of 14
In this history of human’s relationship with the Christian Church we can observe, too, that one has been condemned again and again for one’s bodily desires and for seeking physical and emotional pleasure. Perhaps the medieval church, by placing such emphasis, albeit negatively, on the searching for physical happiness, has forced many to experiment with something so obviously important to a very large segment of society. There are some indications that the human mind cannot translate the work “don’t” into action. Experimenters in the field of psychocybernetics maintain that the mind translate whatever image succeeds the word. As a negative consequence, “Don’t take drugs,” becomes, in the mind, “take drugs.” So, it may actually help to remind people to make sure they are sober and of clear mind and judgment before they drink. And also remind them to remain sober because the adversary is out there preying like a thirsty tiger, looking for someone to devour. All the facts are not in, of course, but the idea is worthy of consideration, particularly in relation to why “don’t” so often seems to be a challenge or dare that is difficult to ignore. “But charity is the pure love of Jesus Christ, and it endures forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with God,” reports Moroni 7.47. #RandolphHarris 12 of 14
The Search for Pleasure ethic is far from dead. It forms the central emphasis in the Playboy Philosophy. Playboy magazine has for the past few decades been making public the personal ethic of its publisher, the late Hugh Hefner, who emphasizes the pleasures of sexual activity for their own sake, provided the participants recognize the responsibility of their actions. He feels that it is unnecessary to justify or institutionalize sexuality. It is a bodily drive like hunger and thirst and needs to be satisfied as easily as are the other drives. Love, he feels, is a pleasant accessory to sexuality, but not necessarily a prerequisite. He advocates neither adultery nor extramarital affairs, nor the violation of the rights and privacy of any one. Sexuality, says Hugh Hefner, is and should be a personal matter between two consenting adults. His criticism of conventional morality for giving most of us our hang-ups and guilt feelings is very biting and penetrating. Yet, there is a sophistication and a call-to-arms about the Playboy Ethic that makes it more than just a modern-day challenge, telling Victorianism to go to its long-awaited grave and stay there. It is almost as Mr. Hefner, its strategist, is crusading for the end of repressive and guilt-producing attitudes regarding sexuality and other bodily pleasures. There are many who are rallying around Mr. Hefner’s flag. #RandolphHarris 13 of 14
However, most scholars would agree that the major emphasis in Christian theology is not necessarily pleasure, but Godliness, or more correctly Christlikeness. God has sent an example, to be followed and to be worshiped as God’s own son. Strive to be like Christ, commit yourself to him, and God’s grace will save humanity. We can, through faith and worship, become perfect. “There are so many kinds of voices in the World, and none of them is without signification,” reports 1 Corinthians 14.8-10. Our World is not much the same as it was in the Victorian era. “If it were not for the prayers of the righteous, we would even now be visited with utter destruction,” reports Alma 10.22. Of course, there are many many upright and faithful who live all the commandments and whose lives and prayers keep the World from destruction. Many good people are being influenced by the bold spirit of times. “The Lord delights in chastity women and men,” reports Jacob 2.28. #RandolphHarris 14 of 14
How Many Legions Overcome?
There is a beginning or a potentiality of goodness in human nature. Humans are rational beings and have moral sense and knowledge. The need we have long felt and which we are trying to meet here on this Earth is an idea of what it means to be alive, to face the fact of death, to discover our own self-hood and identity, to struggle to live significantly in a World such as ours. The situation is often gloomy. We try not to be, not because we do not see what is going on, but because there is a tremendous challenge in being alive today. Learning without thinking is labor scattered; thinking without learning is dangerous. Both learning and thinking are indispensable. Without learning there are no data for inquiry. Without thinking no principle or concept can be reached. We must penetrate more deeply and understand the sense of hearing and seeing do not always think and can be obscured by external things. When one thing comes into contact with another, as a matter of course, one leads the other away. To the office of the mind belongs the office of thinking. By thinking, it gives the right view of things; by neglecting to think, it fails to do this. Sometimes people are so focused on the external World, they cannot even comprehend their own senses, and they project them on to others. #RandolphHarris 1 of 12
When people possess an ability, but do not take the time to acquire learning by their intuitive sense, they may be out of touch with the reality of others. Sometimes the sense a person is feeling is unique to them, and not share by others. For example, one may feel an attraction to someone and assume that that person is attracted to them, but there may actually be no chemistry on the other side, which is why we have communication, so we can check our assumptions before assuming they are facts. Communication saves people from being hurt, embarrassed, or from leading themselves on. We try to paint the background of existence with a broad brush, using whatever colors we find in nature. The foreground and details are painted with a finer brush, often dipped in the lifeblood of existence. The foreground and details are painted with a finer brush, often dipped in the lifeblood of existence. We deal with hopelessness, not by catering to it, but by confronting it with what we continue to find all about us: hope springing significantly—if not eternally—from countless human hearts. In spite of the welter of confusing cries and curses, there is hope in the fact that the words come from human voices, not television speakers alone, nor alone from computerized feedback units, nor just from the printed page. #RandolphHarris 2 of 12
In all the hatred and violence we pray we find hope, because real human beings are refusing to cop-out a plea of instinctive aggression or economic determinism. They are still willing to wrestle with the facts of learning and feeling and working problems through. The perception of beauty strengthens the representative activity of the soul and makes it more perfect, thus causing a feeling of pleasure. The perception of beauty causes intuitive knowledge; in its highest stage it becomes the aesthetic illusion in which, for example, fable appears as reality. Hope is to be found in people who are willing to struggle to keep meaning and significance alive-and-well in their lives. These are the people who cry out that though they may die with a whimper, they are determined not to live with one. These are the people, the human people, the meaningfully existing selves-in-becoming. These are the people who are doing their human thing in their own way, who come into our lives, classrooms, social scenes, and consulting rooms and who give us the spark by which to see the hope. “For behold, the Lord has blessed them so long with the riches of the World that they had not been stirred up to anger, to wars, not to bloodshed,” reports Helaman 6.17. #RandolphHarris 3 of 12
We want to give people some idea of the importance of life and of living it fully, experimentally, excitingly. You have only this one short life. Turn on to it. Drugs, gurus, flowers, Zen riddles, and fast cars do not make it; living fully, openly, as a full-fledged, full-functioning human being does! Are you asking God to give you life, liberty, and joy? Once we face the strain in life, we will immediately get the strength. It is also important that we acknowledge the thousands of people, friends, and loved ones that have added to our lives and insights. We can grow with each contact we make. And one of the few obligations we have in life is to share that growth with others. Amazing though it may seem, in a World of nearly eight billion people we can still be cold and lonely, unless we know of and acknowledge the love and caring of others. Your aches and pains, poor sleep, or lack of stamina may be the early warning signs of unresolved stress on your body. You are probably pushing yourself too hard, perhaps as a result of some internal pressure to perform. Rarely are symptoms such as these related solely to the aging process. If you leave them unresolved, you are opening the door to physical decline. The body is designed to communicate with us, to help us achieve mind-body balance. #RandolphHarris 4 of 12
Busy, achievement-oriented people find it difficult to give up control over the body. There is an agony and ecstasy of being fully and wonderfully alive. To be a person is to be unique and at the same time to know of our kindship with every other living thing. To be a person is to be independent and dependent and interdependent. To be a person is to know that we have needs and motives, that we learn value, love, work, play, adapt, maladapt, feel good, feel bad, feel right, feel wrong. To be a person is to know that we must live. Each of us needs to live experimentally. This means taking the customary, the traditional, the usual, and subjecting it to the experimentation of living experience. We are all very much alike in the sense of being living, breathing, loving, bleeding, climbing, slipping, human creatures whose selfhoods are always in the frustrating process of becoming. We are all unique in that we will have to live our lives in our own way, on our own terms. Life goes on and may we all catch a good ride. “In the days when the seventh Angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants and prophets,” reports Revelation 6.7. What we do not know is what God’s compelling purpose is, but whatever happens, we must maintain our relationship with him. #RandolphHarris 5 of 12
Sooner or later someone is going to catch the imagination of these people with some new magic. At the bottom of it will be a promise of regaining the feeling of participation, the feeling of being needed on Earth—Hell, dignity! The wish for immortality or prolonged life may be a universal wish, but no scientific evidence has yet to produce a person who has lived forever, and only a few who exceed ordinary lifespans by a couple of decades. Existential anxiety—the fear and dread of death—may be one of the most basic fears in human beings. Indeed we are finding evidence that it underlies many other kinds of anxiety. People have all sorts of ways of cushioning or even avoiding a realistic acceptance of the fact of death. Many people put it out of their thoughts by alluding to their youth: “Death? Oh yeah, when you are older. Me? I am 18 (or 25 or 60), and my life is just beginning. I am going to live a thousand years.” If Anne Rice was God, maybe that would be possible. Some people use religious faith: “Sure, I will die; it’s God’s will. However, there is a God and there is a Heaven, and since I am saved, I have got a nice cushy place waiting for me up there. What is the big deal?” Others block out death: “I am gonna live fast and furious, death is gonna have to have a 747 jet to catch me!” #RandolphHarris 6 of 12
Do a little soul-searching. The urge (and ability) to leave a beneficial mark on the World is nature’s way of elevating us to the plane of self-discovery. The call of God can never be understood absolutely or explained externally; it is a call that can only be perceived and understood internally by our true inner nature. Some people are so frightened by death that they absolutely refuse to let the thought of it enter their consciousness: “Why must you dwell on it? Do not speak about it; it is bad luck. Me, I never think about it.” Some people who notice these disturbing feels of mortality panic, worried that something is severely wrong with them. They feel too old to be searching for answers to the mysteries of life, death, and the meaning of existence, especially if they dealt with these issues in the past. They may numb themselves with liquor or drugs: “Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be. Drink up; trip out! With what we got in us, we can take on death and anybody he brings alone to help him!” Those are rough games and the competition is not very equalized. If we do not struggle to find more satisfying answers to these fundamental questions during our midlife journeys, we risk facing old age with fear and anger as our main companions. #RandolphHarris 7 of 12
Some escape into some form of mental illness and thereby beat death to the punch by assuming a living death type of existence: “That old Grim Reaper will not find me out here on the funny farm.” Trouble is, “he’s” been there quite often. If we can begin to wrestle with our mortality, we open ourselves to a spiritual awakening that makes the second half of life a deeper, richer experience than we imagined possible. Sometimes we are struck over the many different ways we see others being able to breathe new life into their spiritual lives. Some study sciences with the hope of gaining spiritual insight from recent findings about the way the subatomic World works. Others return to the traditions and teachings of the religion they were taught as children, and reexperience those rituals and writings at a deeper spiritual level. Some people who rediscover spirituality do so after they have themselves up to the glories of nature, and those who studied many religions with the idea of creating new belief systems if their own. There is no limit to the methods by which one can tap into peace and meaning. Truth is where you find it. Rest assured that the spiritual journey we are on has many rewards independent of the answers we seek. Existential thinking is that each of us is going to die. The only choice we have in the matter is when. #RandolphHarris 8 of 12
If we choose to live until we die, naturally, then we tacitly acknowledge that we have only so much time and that we do not even know just how much. Since life is not open-ended and since we do not know how long it will last, had not we better do some living? Find ways of making the most of the time we do have? Discover the meaning in every single event in our lives, so we can do some choosing and attempt to develop the most significant aspects of our existence? Should we waste a precious moment? Can we not squeeze a whole lot more pleasure and significance out of this life that is, as the Existentialists say, all we have? People interested in human behavior need to consider the importance for a person’s life and one’s attitude toward death. People who have stressed their fears and anxieties about living, wondering whether any life that would end in nothingness could be worth living. Existential psychology has many followers. Humanistic psychologists work not only with those who are emotionally disturbed, but also with people who have more ordinary problems in living. Our present concern is living fully and fully living. It takes as its premise that our lives are finite, and that it will end someday. Human beings can actualize (bring into actuality) their hidden potentials for self-hood. #RandolphHarris 9 of 12
We can grow by experimentally, by continually challenging ourselves and our environment, by taking risks, by experiencing the unknowns, and by showing the courage to be. If we choose to live, we choose not only joy and love, peace and fulfillment; we must also accept the other ingredients in the package: pain, anxiety, conflict, hurt, anger, fear, frustration, and eventually passing into Heaven. “If you keep the commandments of God, and do with these things which are sacred according to that which the Lord does command you, (for you must appeal unto the Lord for all things whatsoever you must do with them) behold, no power on Earth or Hell can take them from you, for God is powerful to the fulfilling of all his words,” reports Alma 37.16. Human beings are not only capable of observing and reporting on human behavior objectively, but of introspectively reporting on one’s own subjective experiences. Humans are also capable of experiencing themselves as a self, as a person, using all the techniques and methods of gathering together what is True, or factual, and making it Real, or personally meaningful. Many people are pragmatic. They have been raised on a diet of goals, purposes, functions, and success versus failure. They look for the point or purpose or use in every action, word, book, film, play, and experience. #RandolphHarris 10 of 12
Our culture has conditioned us—and very well, too!—to seek the practical reason why in virtually every important sphere of our lives. God places his saints where they will bring the most glory to him, and we are totally incapable of judging where they may be. “Let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to him in doing good,” reports 1 Peter 4.19. Most of us design our work so that we can always demonstrate that there is a purpose to be found, a task (always noble) to be done, an end result to show for our efforts. Similarly, our schools get caught up in the need to educate students to answers previously written questions on an exam so that grades can be given and diplomas or degrees awarded and transcripts forwarded: all to show that the educational process works and has purpose and is thereby justified as significant. The lives of religious people are filled with similar concerns: sermons must have key points and a final summary (a justification for the sermons?); our rituals must demonstrate their effectiveness; offerings must go somewhere; churches are still judged successful if their programs work well enough to bring in larger numbers of members. Ask yourself what is special about your own holy moments. What truth was communicated to you? What did your soul receive from the experience? #RandolphHarris 11 of 12
As human beings, we are capable of reflecting on the mysteries of life and of celebrating the magnificence we find. When we are able to actively replay our holy moments at will, we find that our connection to the deeper, more meaningful side of life becomes part of our daily existence rather than a once-in-a-blue-moon stroke of luck. When we discover the power of our holy moments, we discover a well that will renew our spirit and keep us fully alive. In economic, governmental, and other social institutions, there has to be a working structure with specific functions demonstrably serving general functions. Accounts must be kept, and results or reports must be made periodically to let someone know that everything is working well. Purposive Pragmatism, the eternal seeking for the Reason-why or the goal-in-justifiable-terms, while not totally bad or unhealthy, is what ties so many people up. It keeps them from experiencing life and its fascinations, from undertaking any project—be it a course in Anthropology or creative writing, a hobby or sport, a civic service, or recreation—unless they can find a socially valid answer to the question “What for?” The person who expresses a desire to take up golf invariably finds it necessary to add, “The exercise would be good for my health,” not “Because I have always wanted to.” Holiness is not simply what God gives me, but what God has given me that is being exhibited in my life. #RandolphHarris 12 of 12
There is No Frigate Like a Book to Take Us Lands Away Nor Any Coursers Like a Page of Prancing Poetry
As they stood baffled, not knowing what to make of the evidence of their senses, I told the guards to back off and leave the matter to me. Memories are referred to the past history of the rememberer by feelings of warmth and intimacy and of the past direction in time. A feeling of pastness is an essential constituent of memory. In the crucible of Earthly trials, we must patiently move forward, and the Savior’s healing power will bring us light, understanding, peace, and hope. Although the details will differ, the tragedies, the unanticipated tests and challenges, both physical and spiritual, come to each of us because this is morality. This consists partly in the occurrence of images as more or less accurate copies of past occurrences because they are accompanied by two kinds of feelings, feelings of familiarity, which lead us to trust the images to the past and to assign places to them in the time and order. According to the intensity of the feeling of pastness, we refer the image (or the event represented by it) to more or less remote times in the past. This feeling is apparently not something distinct from the feelings of pastness and familiarity, but the reference to the past in memory is possessed in the nature of the belief-feeling, not in the content believed. #RandolphHarris 1 of 9
It was useless to say anything at this juncture. It was not a vampire that they had just seen. They knew and suspected nothing of supernatural origin here. It was Erin’s spectacular recovery which had them in total disbelief. Here the knowledge to be explained is not knowledge of the past; it is the rememberer’s knowledge of one’s own present state of mind. This view involves the idea that when one has a memory belief one must, unless one is unaware of having the belief (if this is possible), be aware of a presentation from which one can read off that one has it. Let us suppose that this presentation consists, among other things, of a feeling of belief together with an image representing that content of the belief. Now unless we supposed that this presentation is the belief itself, rather than a mere sign of its existence, it would seem that positing its existence does not advance us toward an explanation of how a person knows that, and what, one believes; for otherwise we would need an explanation of how a person knows that a presentation of a certain sort indicates the existence of a belief of a certain sort. Yet it seems absurd to say that a memory belief is a feeling or a complex consisting of feelings and images. #RandolphHarris 2 of 9
And this will be doubly absurd if it is held that memory presentations are the grounds of memory beliefs. For then the presentation will be both the belief and the ground on which the belief is based, and the belief, therefore, will be based on itself. And it seems absurd to speak of a belief as being based on itself. Perhaps it will be said that only part of the memory presentation—a part which excludes the feeling of belief—is the ground of the belief, and that this part is not identical with the belief that is grounded on it. However, if so, why must there also be a feeling of belief? The back parlor was best for such gatherings, having no bookshelves and a deep velvet sofa and lots of tolerable Queen Anne chairs. Of course there was ormolu and inlaid wood everywhere, and a blazing new wallpaper of wine and beige stripes, and the garlands of flowers in the carpet seemed to be having convulsions, and the Impressionist paintings on the wall in their thick encrusted frames were like windows into a far far better, Sun-filled Universe, but it was a good room. I shut off the overhead chandelier immediately and switched on two of the smaller corner lamps. It was softly dim now, but not uncomfortably so, and I directed everyone to sit down. #RandolphHarris 3 of 9
The sense of directly aware is supposed to be the sense in which we are directly aware of such entities as pains and mental images; in this sense, it is logically impossible for a person to mistakenly think that one is directly aware of an object, and logically impossible for a person to be mistake concerning the character of that which one is directly aware. If we were directly aware of past events in this sense, there would be memory statements that are, like pain reports, incorrigible, that is, such that it is logically impossible for a sincere assertion of them to be false. However, it is evident that no memory statement is incorrigible in this sense, and that the mere fact that someone now has the memory belief that X happened can never entail, by itself, that X happened. In order to get the most out of our complex collection of adulthood, we must make conscious choices. People who commit to continually recreating their roles discover a newfound sense of personal control and greater satisfaction in all the roles they choose to play. Do you earn enough money? Does any of us? I do not think I earn enough. Despite the fact that I live well, I can think of all sorts of reasons more money would be useful. I would like to take a long vacation, for one, and I would like to pay someone to do the chores I am tired of doing. #RandolphHarris 4 of 9
Then there is the live-in lawyer I want to hire to massage my troubles away. And that is just the beginning. Sit back for a second and imagine you have just won one hundred and fifty million dollars in the lottery, or that a long-lost relative has graciously left you two hundred million dollars in one’s will. What is the first thing you would do? Tell your boss good-bye? Leave home with no forwarding address? What long-term changes would you make? Would you go back to college? Move to a real city? Would you be happier because of new found financial security and experiencing those long wished for escapades? Why do you do your job? To earn enough money to feed, house, and clothe your family? To take care of your children so your spouse can be free to earn? To save enough to realize your dream of owning a mansion? What gives you the most on-the-job satisfaction? If you could change three things about your job, what would they be? Those of us who get the most satisfaction from our work tend to be top performers who have plenty of self-esteem—two qualities that are associated with increased earning potential! Adulthood offers us the opportunity to remake work in ways that make it more relevant to our most heartfelt needs and desires. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9
Few of us have more than a vague idea of what our personal satisfiers are. The occurrence would be one of coming to remember, or perhaps being reminded of, something previously forgotten (sometimes something only momentarily forgotten). Here remembering in this sense may be preceded by trying to remember, as when one gropes for the answer to a question, or searches one’s memory for it. When this happens, and also in cases of sudden and spontaneous recollection, there often occur the memory images and experiences of remembering to which memory theorists have attached so much importance. We are in the habit of gauging our work primarily by the wroth it commands on the open market, not by how well it matches our inner urges to grow. We have to look for instances in everyday life that confirm our identified satisfiers. As we become more confident in the power of our strengths to add satisfaction to our lives, capitalize on these competencies in other situations, we will invent new ways of addressing certain duties and interest that incorporate our hidden strengths. #RandolphHarris 6 of 9
We search for happiness. We long for peace. We hope for love. And the Lord showers us with an amazing abundance of blessings. However, intermingled with the joy and happiness, one thing is certain: there will be moments, hours, days, sometimes years when our soul will be wounded. That is why it seems that sometimes millionaires and billionaires worry because they start to see that there are no guarantees in life. However, the one thing we can count on is God. Most people are surprised to learn tat they are skilled enough, experienced enough, even secure enough in their earning power to enable them to transform the work they do to make a living into more than just working for a paycheck. Mature people are able to see that no matter how much money they make, it is important to pursue satisfaction somewhere, too. As we grow spiritually, so will the people around us. Magically, negative comment will become more jovial and less demoralizing. Wounds of the soul are not unique to the rich nor less affluent, to one culture, one nation, nor one generation. They come to all and are part of the learning we receive from this mortal experience. “Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?” reports Isaiah 53.1. #RandolphHarris 7 of 9
We must understand that people are smart. We cannot confuse our efforts with shallow management practices such as passing out smile buttons or having morale meetings; people sense a manipulative motive when it is present, and give only as much as they think they have to to appear to be a person who plays or works well as a member of a team or a group. Therefore, it is important that we make a habit of using our hidden assets in all our endeavors, and we will find our workday as fulfilling as our time off. The next reward shows us another way to elevate satisfaction while increasing competence. Yet, our soul wounds may come from a natural disaster, an unfortunate accident, an unfaithful husband or wife, annoying neighbors and community members, and 62 percent of people claimed to be exhausted, while 70 percent blamed job stress for their health problems and lack of productivity. There are so many things that turn life upside down for a righteous person. We each understand that difficulties are part of life, but when they come to us personally, they can take our breath away. “Think it not strange concerning the fiery trials which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you,” reports Apostle Peter. #RandolphHarris 8 of 9
Along with bright colors of happiness and joy, the darker-colored threads of trial and tragedy are woven deeply into the fabric of our Father’s plan. These struggles, although difficult, often become our greatest teachers. If it be denied that knowledge and belief can be simply retained, and tat a belief can be well grounded simply by virtue of having been acquired on the basis of good evidence or from a reliable source, the only alternative sees to be that we must be constantly re-acquiring, on the basis of continuous supply of fresh evidence, every item of knowledge we possess and are said to remember. When we have ready (if not constant) access to our best self, amazing things can happen. We are eligible for a kind of genius. We become open to new ideas, more able to weigh tough options, more creative in the way we approach the problems in our life. We may also begin to get a dose of the cosmic truths whose promise makes every moment an adventure. “The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways, but the folly of fools is deception,” reports Proverbs 14.1. “The house of the righteous contains great treasure, but the income of the wicked brings them trouble,” reports Proverbs 16.6. #RandolphHarris 9 of 9
I Know the He Exists Somewhere in Silence—He Has Hid His Rare Life from Our Gross Eyes
I flashed on Deacon last night in my clutches, my questions to him coming angrily as accusations. He knew nothing about any Totality of Salvation, did he? Why, I had already figured that out, had I not? That when I drifted to Earth, in my fantasy, as Saint William Randolph, I had to leave behind a certain Heavenly Knowledge. One can remember an event, an action, a person, a place, a feeling, a procedure, a line of verse, a melody, or a person’s name. One can remember doing such and such, seeing such and such, or thinking such and such. And one can remember where something is, when a certain event happened, why something happened, who did a certain thing, how to do something, and how something looks, sounds, or feels. Although memory is commonly said to be of the past, one can remember facts about the future (I just remembered that there will be a meeting tomorrow), facts about the present (I just remembered that the debate is going on right now), scientific laws and generalizations, and timeless truths of logic and mathematics. What in the name of Heaven is going on? A stinging hurt spread through me, over my face, my skin. I had never felt anything quite like it. #RandolphHarris 1 of 12
Deacon was back there, in the shadows, laughing cruelly, collecting just a seam of the light along the edge of his face and form. I felt his strength recede, and his eyes misted. A glowing fire was quelled, and I had not done it, and an ever-present grief enfolded it. A protective surge rose in me and the wild fantasies reigned again inside of me as if no one else was present. Behind me the ghost whispered contemptuously, “You are not a gentleman, you never were!” I muttered all the obscenities I knew in French and English in a tight whisper. Some people seem to view eternity as a continual existence through time, but others believe it is a timeless present. Despite the variety of uses, philosophers writing on memory have tended, until recently, to concentrate on those uses of “remember” in which it takes its object an expression referring to a particular past event or action. While they have paid some attention to memory of facts (memory that such and such), they have generally restricted this attention to memory of facts about remembering events. Thus they have tended to ignore, or rule out of consideration, cases in which the fact remembered is about the remote past (for example, the fact that Brutus stabbed Caesar), or about the future. #RandolphHarris 2 of 12
For to say that a person remembers an event (and hence to say that he or she remembers a fact about an event, or otherwise came to know of it, at the time of its occurrence, and this implication limits the possible objects of event-memory to past events and actions occurring within the lifetime of the rememberer. And of course it is only such events and actions that one can remember having witnessed or done. I went up high in the air. I traveled fast—faster than a ghost, or so I figured. I drifted about the city of Rocklin, lulled by its lights and its voiced. I wondered how Ava would handle this power, if she would be weeping again. I let myself believe there were no ghosts who could touch me up here or anywhere if I used all my considerable powers, no ghosts who could make me afraid. I said No to hunger. I said to thirst Be still. I slipped down silently into the realm of my fellow creatures. I caught sight of Deacon in the driveway, pulling behind him a pile of suitcases, all dependent upon one huge rectangular bag equipped with excellent little wheels. He was whistling a melody by Chopin and walking very briskly, and I fell into stride beside him. #RandolphHarris 3 of 12
“You are the most dashing man on the street, Little Brother,” I said. “What is with all the suitcases?” “Are you going to let us stay at the house, Beloved Boss?” he asked. His eyes were fired with love. In our short acquaintance, I had never seen him so happy. In fact, I had never seen him happy before at all. “What do you think?” he asked. “Do we crowd you? Do you want us out?” “Not at all, I want you there,” I replied. “I should have told you.” We walked along together, me trying to keep up with his long legs. Ava was in the bedroom, working on the computer we bought at Sunset, first thing she had to have. She was recording every experience, every sensation, every subtle distinction, ever revelation. The notion of the past enters into the notion of memory in another way, for it is true in general that remembering involves having previously learned or acquired knowledge of what one remembers. However, it should not be supposed that when a person is said to remember a fact about an event in the remote past or the future—that is, about an event to which one cannot have been a witness—what one really remembers is learning (for example, reading or being told) that fact; it commonly happens that one remembers a fact without having any recollection of the occasion on which one learned it. #RandolphHarris 4 of 12
Memory of acts (what has been called factual memory) cannot be reduced to memory of events experienced or witnessed by the rememberer (what has been called personal memory), and not all cases of factual memory are cases in which the remembered fact is a fact about a remembered event or action. However, the concealing memory may be connected with the impression it conceals, not only through its contents, but also through contiguity of time; this is the contemporaneous or contiguous concealing memory. How large a portion of the sum total of our memory belongs to the category of concealing memories, and what part it plays in various neurotic hidden processed, these are problems into the value of which I have neither inquired, nor shall I enter here. I am concerned only with the emphasizing the sameness between the forgetting of proper names with faulty recollection and the formation of concealing memories. At first sight, it would seem that the diversities of both phenomena are far more striking than their exact analogies. There we deal with proper names, here with complete impressions experienced either in reality or in thought; there we deal with a manifest failure of the memory function, here with a momentary disturbance—for the name just forgotten could have been reproduced correctly a hundred times before, and will be so again from tomorrow on. #RandolphHarris 5 of 12
Here we deal with lasting possession without a failure, for the indifferent childhood memories seem to be able to accompany us through a great part of life. In both these cases, the riddle seems to be solved in an entirely different way. There is the forgetting, while here it is the remembering which excites our scientific curiosity. It was fun walking along the street again. Feet on the Summer pavements with the heat of the Sun still rising from them. Reese was talking about how she wished she could get rid of some female. I pondered the matter, perhaps for the first time. A body could not survive being dumped in the Honey Island Swamp in the Pearl River Wildlife area. Too many gators. It made me smile bitterly to remember that once others had tried to dispose of me in just the same way. But this poor dead female had lacked my resources when she tumbled down into darkness. Her soul had fled to the Totality of Salvation, of course. We walked on together through a crush of valiant tourists. The town was drippingly hot. Local legend has it that Honey Island Swamp in Louisiana scares people who dare to venture down the road after nightfall and park along the road, reports claim ghost, believed to be slaves from nearby plantations, may jostle vehicles and leave their handprints on windows. #RandolphHarris 6 of 12
The temperatures in the area are said to drop, an indication of a paranormal presence. This swamp is also the home of the legendary Honey Island Swamp monster, which has from time to time been known as the Tainted Keitre. The creature is described as bipedal, seven feet (over two meters tall), with gray hair and yellow eyes. The story goes that a four-story mansion of antebellum fashion once stood on the land in the 1870s, the owner was notorious for beating the enslaved people, both African Americans and European Americans. There was speculation that he was from a race of slave masters from another planet. One day, Charles Deslondes, on the 1882-acre plantation, tried to convince the master to stop beating them leaving deep scars in their backs, and if he would be their friend they would tell him something that might change his life. The slaves warned that he should watch his wife at night because they found a wild boar with its throat gashed out. The evening after the owner received the message, the couple went to bed as usual and the wife, near midnight, slipped outside into the rain to sneak below to the home’s prison to visit the slaves. As the slave she was fond of moved to embrace her, you could hear the chains restricting him rattle in the night air. The next morning, he was hanged high on one of the property’s 500-year-old oak tree and buried below it. #RandolphHarris 7 of 12
Years later, the house sank with the owner, Manuel Andry in it. Legend has it that he was eaten alive by gators and the property turned into a swamp. No records survive to tell us what Charles said the final minutes before the mansion sank, but some suspect he used a powerful voodoo curse and that Manel Andry some how became the swamp monster we hear about these days. Here we seal with lasting possession without a failure, for the indifferent childhood memories seem to be able to accompany us through a great part of life. The riddle seems to be solved in an entirely different way. There it is the forgetting, while here it is the remembering which excites out scientific curiosity. After deeper reflection, one realized that, although there is a diversity in the psychic material and in the duration of time of the two phenomena, yet these are by far outweighed by the conformities between the two. We deal with the failure of remembering; what should be correctly reproduced by memory fails to appear, and instead something else comes as a substitute. We are justified in saying that the diversities in material, in duration of time, and in the centering of both phenomena serve to enhance our expectation, that we have discovered something that is important and of general value. #RandolphHarris 8 of 12
This generality purports that the stopping and straying of the reproductioning function indicates more often than we suppose that there is an intervention of a prejudicial factor, a tendency which favors one memory and, at the same time, works against another. The subject of childhood memories appears to me so important and interesting. What vibe did you get in your secret soul? Good ghost? Bad ghost? Hmm, well, good, obviously. Trying to tell us we have Andry genes. Trying to save us, trying to keep us from breeding some awful mutations, which occurs now and then in the family. A benign ghost. I have told you the whole story. A benign ghost and an awful mutation. Has Reese mentioned the mutation? The lost child? Then I stretched out on my bed. Satin tufted tester above me. Satin counterpane below. Fairly shadowy. I turned my face into the down pillows, of which I always had a sizeable heap, and with all my muscles sort of scrunched up against the modern World. I believe we accept too indifferently the fact of infantile amnesia—that is, the failure of memory for the first years of our lives—and fail to find it in a strange riddle. We forget of what great intellectual accomplishments and of what complicated emotions a child of four years is capable. #RandolphHarris 9 of 12
We really ought to wonder why the memory of later years has, as a rule, retained so little of these psychic processes, especially as we have every reason for assuming that these same forgotten childhood activities have not glided off without leaving a trace in the development of the person, but that they have left a definite influence for all future time. Yet, in spite of this unparalleled effectiveness they were forgotten! This would suggest that there are particularly formed conditions of memory (in the sense of conscious reproduction) which have thus far eluded our knowledge. It is quite possible that the forgetting of childhood may give us the key to understanding of those amnesias which, according to our newer studies, are possessed at the basis of the formation of all neurotic symptoms. Suddenly, there was an agitation in me so greater that only lying alone, scrunched up on the bed, could comfort me. Sleep. Sleep, but I could not. And I had to see if the ghost would come. A clock ticked somewhere. A clock with a painted face and curlicue hands. Not a huge clock. A clock that with its whole soul knew only how to tick and might tick for centuries, maybe had ticked for centuries, a clock to which people would look, and which people would dust, and which people wound with a key, and which people might come to love. #RandolphHarris 10 of 12
There was a clock somewhere in this house, perhaps in the back parlor, the only piece of all this furniture that could talk. I heard it. I knew what it was saying. Its code was lovely to me. Of these retained childhood reminiscences, some appear to us readily comprehensible, while others seem strange or unintelligible. It is not difficult to correct certain in regard to both kinds. If the retained reminiscences of a person are subject to an analytic test, it can be readily ascertained that a guarantee for their correctness does not exist. Some of the memory pictures are surely falsified and incomplete, or displaced in point of times and place. The assertions of persons examined, that their first memories reach back perhaps to their second year, are evidently unreliable. Motives can soon be discovered which explain the disfigurement and the displacement of these experiences, but they also demonstrate that these memory lapses are not the result of a mere unreliable memory. Powerful forces from a later period have moulded the memory capacity of our infantile experiences, and it is probably due to these same forces that the understanding of our childhood is generally so very strange to us. The recollection of adults, as is known, proceeds through different psychic material. #RandolphHarris 11 of 12
Some recall by means of visual pictures—their memories are of a visual pictures—their memories are of a visual character; other individuals can scarcely reproduce in memory the partly sketch of an experience; we call such persons auditifs and moteurs in contrast to the visuels. These differences vanish in dreams; all our dreams are preponderatingly visual. However, this development is also found in the childhood memories; the latter are plastic and visual, even in those people whose later memory lacks the visual element. The visual memory, therefore, preserves the type of the infantile recollections. Only my earliest childhood memories are of a visual character; they represent plastically depicted scenes, comparable only to stage settings. “And it was by faith that these three disciples obtained a promised that they should not taste of death; and they obtained not the promise until after their faith. And neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith; wherefore they first believed in the Son of God. And there were many whose faith was so exceedingly strong, even before Christ came, who could not be kept from within the veil, but truly saw with their eyes the things which they had beheld with an eye of faith, and they were glad,” reports Ether 12.17-19. #RandolphHarris 12 of 12
Randolph Harris II International Institute 